Cereal Box Romance
by RhiannonoftheMoon
Summary: 1st Best Comedy IYFG 2nd Q 06, 1st Serial, OC IYFG 07. In a postNaraku Feudal Era, Kagome just wants the three R’s: rest, relaxation…and maybe a little romance? Thanks to a seemingly innocuous toy, she gets much more than she ever expected! Ch 17 posted!
1. Cat

A/N: This fic is not on a linear timeline! Shifts are clearly marked.

In a post-Naraku Feudal Era, Kagome just wants the three R's: rest, relaxation…and maybe a little romance? Thanks to a seemingly innocuous little toy, she gets much more than she ever expected!

Cereal Box Romance

Chapter1 - Cat

Xxxx Present… xxxX

"I'm going insane!" Kagome puffed as she dumped the shopping bags stuffed with Golden Puffs cereal on the kitchen floor, tendrils of dark hair sticking to the sweat that coated her forehead. "Certifiable, card-carrying loony! That's what I am!"

"And you're talking to yourself!" Souta said as he strolled into the kitchen, stopping mid-stride when he saw his elder sister standing on the cold linoleum surrounded by drifts of white plastic and boxes of cereal. "Uh, you hungry, sis?"

"Bug off!" she snapped, nudging an errant box of Golden Puffs off of her shoe with a flick of her ankle. "This is all your fault!"

Souta blinked slowly, then backed out of the kitchen. "Ooookay, I think I'll just stay out of this." If he'd learned anything in the last few years, it was that an angry eighteen year-old Kagome was scarier than any jewel-carrying Noh mask or re-hydrated fungus demon. He didn't even _want_ to know what she had planned for all of that cereal. Poor cereal.

Glaring after his retreating figure, Kagome harrumphed and fished a box from the piles around her. 'Well, it _is_ his fault,' she griped to herself, tearing the box open and dumping the contents into her mother's mixing bowl. 'If he hadn't…'

Her thought trailed off as she spied what she wanted, partially concealed by sticky yellow corn puffs. Snatching up the object by the corner of clear plastic that poked through the cereal, she tore through the seal and shook a small, brown plastic ring into her hand.

"Squirrel," she frowned and tossed it over her shoulder, uncaring that it bounced once and rolled under the fridge. "Next!"

Another box of cereal met a similar fate as its brethren and soon Kagome was holding a black ring. "Magpie?" Another plastic ring was unceremoniously thrown to the floor where it was lost under a shopping bag.

'This could take awhile,' Kagome mussed as she grabbed her next victim. It really was Souta's fault: him and his penchant for sweet cereal. Never mind the fact that it had been her turn to go grocery shopping and she'd gone to the Feudal Era instead. It was summer vacation, after all! And she'd graduated! She'd _deserved_ a little rest and relaxation!

She huffed impatiently when she went to upend the third box over the mixing bowl and found it full. Dropping the box on the counter, she raided the cupboards below for more big bowls, cursing colorfully, thanks to a certain half-demon for the vocabulary, under her breath.

Xxxx Four weeks earlier… xxxX

Kagome scowled into the fridge, eyes skimming past non-fat yogurt, a block of cheese, last night's oden, and various other unappetizing items before slamming the door with an indignant huff. A googly-eyed frog magnet hit the kitchen floor with a clatter, which she summarily ignored.

"There's nothing to eat in this house!" she declared to her brother, who was calmly crunching through a bowl of puffy yellow cereal and flipping through the latest edition of "Shonen Jump".

Without glancing up, he waved at the box of Golden Puffs on the table with his spoon, "You're welcome to some of this."

"Ugh."

"It's good. And weren't you supposed to go shopping yesterday?"

"Shut up, brat."

"Then starve, dork."

Kagome blew him a raspberry as she pulled a bowl from the cupboard and shook a generous heap of cereal into it. Just about to splash milk over the top, she noticed and very un-puff like object partially hidden amongst the nuggets. Since it didn't move and did not appear insectile, she fished it out of her breakfast with a minimal amount of squealing.

"What's your problem?" Souta complained, finally looking up from his book as his sister wailed and gyrated. "It's just one of those Decoder thingies!"

Kagome shuddered and eyed the little plastic baggie and its blue contents with a wary eye. "They should _warn_ people before sticking stuff in their food!"

"It's on the box, genius," he tapped the side of the cereal box next to the words, "Demon Decoder Ring Inside!" and a picture of chubby, grinning rabbit holding what looked like a cheap mood ring. "One would think that a girl who spent the last three years traveling to Feudal Japan to fight demons and restore a magic jewel would be less squeamish!"

"No one asked you!" she snapped as she snatched up the box to get a better look at the picture. With a small frown, she set the box back on the table. "Demon Decoder Ring, my Aunt Fanny. I wish it were that easy." She held the offending bit of plastic at eye level, pinched between two fingers.

Souta rolled his eyes and went back to his book with a parting comment, "It's just a toy, sis. Give it to Shippo or something."

'Of all the nonsense he spouts, that actually isn't a bad idea,' Kagome decided and slipped the little baggie into her pocket without bothering to open it.

An hour later, slightly sick to her stomach due to the incredibly high sugar content of her breakfast, Kagome found Feudal Japan just as she left it: sunny, warm, breathtakingly beautiful, fresh of air, and Naraku-free. Now that Naraku had been dispatched and the Jewel of Four Souls completed and returned to its rightful place, namely her body, the Feudal Era was the ideal place catch a few rays and catch up on her reading of the non-textbook kind. Humming a snatch of the current number-one pop single, Kagome hoisted herself out of the dry well that served as a portal through time and sighed happily. Sunscreen, munchies and novel in tow, she started up the path toward Kaede's village with a bounce in her step and a smile stretching her lips.

"Priestess," a velvety, not wholly welcome monotone stopped her in her tracks.

She turned slowly to face the source of the voice: a taiyoukai of formidable power, an uneasy ally, and Inuyasha's half-brother. Impassive golden eyes stared down at her from an angular, aristocratic face. Silver bangs parted neatly to display a blue crescent on his forehead, long white mane falling to brush the backs his knees, armor polished and intimidating, he was cute in an untouchable, perfect hair kind of way.

"Are you sure you aren't looking for Kikyou?" Kagome asked as she blushed and tried to pretend that she had not just thought Sesshomaru was cute. Well, handsome was really the word…or gorgeous…

The dog demon regarded her with an air of boredom, his eyes flicking over her as high color suffused her face. "You will give this to my half-brother."

He extended a tightly rolled scroll toward her, which she took with a small frown. After all, she wasn't just some messenger-wench. He could at least say please. Without another word, Sesshomaru turned and strolled away, leaving an irritable woman in his wake.

"You're welcome!" she grumped to his retreating back and stuffed the scroll into her tote. Alas, her yellow backpack had finally met its demise at the jaws of a hungry goat demon. She missed the old bag, but the pink and green striped tote was just as loud and carried what she needed it to carry.

The demon lord ignored her, which came as no surprise, and she continued up the path, determined not to let arrogant jerks bring her down. At least the brothers were on speaking terms, now. Not all of their meetings ended in hurled insults and clashing swords. Sesshomaru had even started letting Inuyasha in on some of the inner workings of the Western Lands, their homeland. It was obvious that they still did not like each other, and the truce was often strained, but it was immense progress in Kagome's opinion. That still didn't mean she liked to run messages between them. Didn't he have servants for that?

Inuyasha was as gracious accepting the message as his brother had been delivering it.

"What the hell's that?" Inuyasha peered down at her from his perch on a tree branch in a fair imitation of his brother's boredom, though if he'd been informed of the likeness, he would have birthed a litter of kittens.

Pursing her lips, Kagome chucked the scroll at his handsome face, narrowly missing one of the silver puppy ears that topped his head.

Inuyasha yelped, "Bitch!" but managed to catch it without loosing his seat.

"Message from your brother! And next time, tell him to deliver his own damn mail!" Back stiff, Kagome stalked to her favorite sunbathing location: the secluded bank of a river that ran near the peaceful little village.

To her surprise, a small, yellow, two-tailed feline was already curled up on one of the smooth, flat rocks that decorated the bank of the river. Kagome grinned and clapped her hands. The presence of the firecat could only mean one thing: her best girlfriend was here on a visit. "Kirara! Where's Sango?"

Not expecting a reply since the firecat did not speak beyond mewls and roars, Kagome almost tripped over her own feet when a tiny voice floated through her mind, _'Not here.'_

Glancing around hurriedly for peeping toms, for she'd been planning try to get a lineless tan this summer, Kagome cleared her throat. "Um, who's there?"

Kirara cracked an eye, giving her a disdainful cat glance before going back to her nap. _'Not here.'_

'So much for sunbathing topless,' Kagome thought as she lowered the tote to the sandy bank and sat with her knees drawn to her chest. Something hard poked her thigh through her shorts and she stretched her legs to pull the object out of her pocket. In her hand lay the blue Decoder ring she had found in her breakfast cereal, still in its packaging. Tearing through the clear plastic baggie with her teeth and dumping its contents into her palm, she gave it a quick examination. Even less impressive in reality than on the box, it had a thin band topped by round disk with a cat kanji embossed on the top, all molded from garish blue plastic.

"Look, Kirara, it's a cat demon decoder!" With a flourish, she presented the toy to Kirara, who ignored her. "I think you should have it!"

'_This one will pass.'_

Kagome ignored the strange voice and rooted through her tote until she found a short length of pink ribbon. Stringing the ring on the ribbon, she tied the makeshift necklace around the cat's neck, and then leaned back to eye her handiwork. "Stunning!"

To Kagome's immense relief, no voices spoke inside of her skull and after a few minutes of scanning the trees behind her and the far bank of the river, she went ahead with her master plan of topless tanning.

A/N: Well, what do you think? Continue or no?


	2. Fox

A/N: I'm not promising anything with this fic. I usually finish what I start (now don't get on my case about "Primal" – I'm working on it, I swear!) and this happens to amuse me right now. If I loose interest, I might just scrap it. I can't even promise to keep the rating – a lemon might work it's way in here. Sorry. I'll warn you if it does.

Fox

Xxxx Present… xxxX

"Well, hello dear!" Kagome's mother's voice filled the little kitchen with a lilting chime and Kagome startled, smacking the top of her head against the roof of the cupboard. "Glad to see you back so soon!"

"Hi, mom," Kagome mumbled as she rubbed the throbbing knot on her head. She'd really been hoping that she would have found it before her mom came home. No surprise, luck was not with her.

"I'm sure you have a very good reason for scattering cereal all over the kitchen. Has Inuyasha changed his taste from ramen to Golden Puffs?"

"Um…" Kagome stalled as she tried to come up with a plausible answer. No, he hadn't changed his taste, not for ramen and not for women, the two-timing, golem-kissing jerk. "No, but Shippo really likes this stuff."

"Oh! Well let me help you repackage it, then. I have some gallon zipper bags that should do the trick."

"Thanks, mom." Kagome straightened and spent the next few minutes helping her mother empty bowls of cereal into zip-lock bags. Her plan had not included what to do with the wasted cereal once she found the ring she wanted, but taking it back to Feudal Japan to Shippo was as good an idea as any. Except for the fact the she would have to carry it, of course, and there was no way that all of those bags would fit into her favorite tote.

'It's Souta _and_ Shippo's fault,' she decided, so at the very least, the kit could eat the damn cereal. Shippo didn't _know _it was his fault, none of them knew _anything_,but she chose to let that detail go unnoticed. It was much more satisfying to blame this whole mess on someone else. Snagging a couple of giant garbage bags from a drawer, Kagome sighed heavily as she shoved overstuffed gallon bags of cereal into their dark depths.

Xxxx Three weeks earlier… xxxX

"Hey, sis! How did Shippo like that Decoder ring?" Souta leaned against her bedroom doorjamb and watch his sister throw a tiny string bikini into a hideously striped pink and green bag. There was no accounting for modern fashion.

"Oh, I forgot to give it to him…" Kagome paused as she felt a momentary pang of guilt for having forgotten the kit but shrugged it off. It hadn't been a piece of candy, so what would he have done with it?

"Well, here's another one. It has 'fox' on it. See?" Entering the confines of his sister's abode, ever watchful for embarrassing feminine products that could be scattered on the floor or lurking in the corners, he held out the orange plastic ring for Kagome's inspection.

"So it does. Thanks!" Kagome said as she took it from him and stuffed it in the pocket of her shorts. "Hey, Souta, don't step on that! That's my-"

"Gah!" Souta yelped and made a mad dash for the safety of the hallway. He'd known that it was a bad idea to go into her room. Why didn't he just trust his instincts? "If you'd just clean this place up once in a while, then I wouldn't have- Gah!"

"It's sealed, you big baby!" Kagome huffed at her little brother, who was eyeing her bedroom floor as if it were a pit of venomous snakes. Why were boys so freaked out about that stuff, anyway? It was sanitary, for kami's sake! It said so on the box!

Souta scowled at her, getting over his case of heebie-jeebies and determined not to let his sister have the last word. "Is sunbathing all you do over there?" he asked, carefully pitching his tone to be leading and slightly disgusted.

Kagome took the bait and glanced up at him. "No, it isn't," she lied. Well, it wasn't _exactly_ a lie. She ate, too, and read, took walks… "Why do you ask?" she asked mistrustfully, fairly sure that she was walking into a trap.

"'Cause those shorts are looking a bit tight-"

Kagome released an indignant shriek and threw a sandal at him, smirking when it bounced off of his forehead.

"Geez, sis! Do you have to be so violent?" Souta tossed the shoe back at her with noticeably less accurate aim and stomped back to his room, grumbling about erratic women and the trials they inflicted on their families.

XxxxxxxX

Thwap. 

The arrow hit her makeshift target, a red tablecloth to the top of which she'd pinned two white napkins folded into triangles, dead on. She refused to contemplate the irony of her actions, namely shooting full of arrows an Inuyasha-like target tacked to a tree, nor the similarities to a certain priestess that she was currently displaying. Instead, she cursed and sputtered, imagining the hanyou's shifty golden eyes widening in surprise as she taught him that a Higurashi woman didn't take crap lying down.

"The _nerve_ of him!" she hissed as she drew another arrow out of her quiver and nocked it to her longbow.

Really, was it too much to ask? Just one peaceful summer afternoon spent watching the clouds together? For three years, she had stayed by his side, no matter how dangerous things got or how badly his indecision over herself and Kikyou hurt her. She had hoped that they could start to build something out of the deep friendship that they had established through their travels together; that maybe, just maybe, she could allow her crush to blossom into love without the fear of being tossed away at the first sign of soul collectors.

Apparently, she was wrong.

Salt stung the backs of her eyes as she let the arrow fly, and she scowled at the fletched end of the arrow vibrating squarely between the two jerry-rigged puppy ears.

After quite a bit of cajoling, ending in a promised lunch of ramen, Inuyasha had finally agreed to spend the afternoon with her. Never mind the special omelet that she had whipped up at home in the anticipation of a, dare she say it, _romantic moment _with the incorrigible hanyou. Now, the omelet was passed spoiled and the ramen still dry, her mother's famous punch long since warmed in its thermos.

"Stupid jerk!"

And why had her efforts been for naught? Because Kikyou had casually strolled into the village not five minutes after she'd gotten his begrudged acquiescence, and he'd promptly dropped her like yesterday's junk mail to take off after her. It was humiliating, degrading, and yet she'd allowed it to continue for three years.

Was there even a chance for them? Could she be misreading the signs? If only she could get into his thick, addled brain and figure out, once and for all, if he wanted Kikyou or her or _what_.

Snuffling back tears as her heart wobbled miserably around her hope for his love and her resignation that she would never get more than his friendship; she sighted along the shaft of her arrow to the target. For the briefest of moments, stillness over came her as the world narrowed to that single point her arrow would hit, then she released her breath and with it, the arrow.

Thwap. 

"I don't deserve this shit," she ground out between clenched teeth. Hojo had given up on her after a year. Kouga had waited two before heading into the mountains to make amends with Ayame. Yet here she was, pining after her best friend who may or may not even see her that way. And that was the problem: she didn't even _know_.

The other day, Sango had tried to broach the delicate subject during one of their now-rare baths. Since the destruction of Naraku, lesser demons had come out of the woodworks, all vying for piece of the evil hanyou's power. They kept Sango quite busy, and she had even recruited an apprentice and was training her at her rebuilt home in the demon slayer's village. She had offered the job to Kagome, but they both knew that she had commitments in her own time, and besides, none of them really knew how much time she had left in Feudal Japan. The well could stop working just as easily as it had started. It's magic was still very much a mystery.

So increased business, coupled with her recent marriage to Miroku, meant that Sango's visits to Kaede's village were less and less frequent. Therefore, the two friends made a point to have a ritual bath whenever the opportunity presented itself.

"You know, Kagome, you aren't getting any younger," the older woman had said hesitantly as they had soaked under the stars in the warm spring water.

"People usually don't," Kagome had agreed, giving her dear a friend a pained glance through the steam. Once she had gotten married, the demon slayer had become convinced that _all_ women should do it. As soon as possible.

Sango had sighed and shifted her body under the water. "What I'm trying to say is…"

"…yes?"

"Well, maybe you should, um. Have you had a chance to speak with Jiro lately? He was giving you quite the eye."

Sinking into the water up to her eyeballs, Kagome had played dumb and the subject had been dropped, but she had recognized that if _Sango_, who had been blind to Miroku's true feelings for _years_, could see that the relationship wasn't going anywhere, then maybe she needed to try harder to make it work. Or, let it go.

She didn't want to let it go.

For one thing, she wasn't a quitter, despite overwhelming odds and almost immanent failure. It was in her nature to fight with her last breath and she had never failed. Well, except that algebra class, but that didn't count. She'd passed it on the second try.

Unconsciously, she pulled another arrow from her quiver and nocked it.

For another thing, no one else interested her! She simply couldn't imagine herself with anyone but Inuyasha. Granted, there were a lot of guys out there who weren't quite so rude, insulting, and who had much better manners, but who could match his exotic good looks, honeyed eyes, toned physique or lustrous hair?

"Hn."

Kagome yelped in surprise, releasing the arrow and frowning in dismay when it landed in the soft dirt several feet from her target. With an annoyed scowl, she wheeled on person who had dared interrupt her. "What?" she snapped.

The golden eyes of Sesshomaru regarded her coolly, and then flicked toward her pathetic target across the clearing. "I understand that my half-brother is indisposed."

Glancing at her hanyou-esque creation, she winced, suddenly feeling guilty for even the metaphorical violence against her best friend, and in front of his brother, no less. "Um, yeah."

"With the undead priestess, I presume."

'Bastard. Rub it in, why don't you.' Kagome slung the bow over her shoulder and turned her back on him, stomping toward the village in an ill-disguised snit. "If you want him, go find him yourself."

'What is he doing here, anyway?' she had to wonder. She knew that he often wandered the countryside but he had become almost a regular at Kaede's village. Well, not quite. Rarely did he actually step foot in the village; usually, he stayed in the wooded outskirts, making snide comments or giving her messages to deliver. It was strange, to say the least, but none of them had screwed up the courage to question his motives. Maybe he was bored. Kagome snorted, a crude, unladylike sound. 'I'd be bored if I were him.'

It didn't take her long to realize that he was following silently behind her; the spot between her shoulder blades itches and she had the impression that it was Miroku, not Sesshomaru, who was tailing her. Fighting the urge to smooth the back of her shorts to make sure the garment covered her butt, she quickened her pace. They were very short shorts, worn specifically to impress the flaky hanyou. She was almost ready to tell him to beat it when she heard a little girl's voice raised as if in argument. Soon after, Shippo said something unintelligible in a querulous tone.

'What on earth?' Kagome hurried after the voices, not having to look behind her to know that Sesshomaru was following.

"Yeah? Well, Tensaiga can bring 100 people back to life with a single stroke!" Rin was standing face-to-face with Shippo at the outskirts of the village, her arms and legs akimbo, when Kagome found them.

"That's nothing! Kagome could purify Sesshomaru with a single arrow!" Shippo shouted and brandished a finger in her face.

'_Oh, she's so pretty when she's angry.'_

Kagome blinked, glancing around for the phantom speaker and seeing no one but the two bickering children and one apathetic taiyoukai. She was fairly certain it hadn't been Sesshomaru to say that.

"Sesshomaru would catch that stupid arrow between two claws!" Rin snipped at Shippo's digit with her fingers, miming scissors.

'_Almost as pretty as Kagome.'_

'This is too weird,' Kagome thought with a blush as she stepped between the two children. "Okay, that's enough, you two."

"Kagome, you're back!" Shippo exclaimed as he leapt into her arms. She enfolded his little body with her arms instinctively, giving him a quick cuddle despite her ire and bewilderment.

_'Candy, candy, candy…'_

'Really, really weird. And did I mention odd? And totally bizarre?'

"Rin. We are leaving," Sesshomaru intoned, his golden eyes fluttering over Kagome as he turned away from them. In an unconscious gesture, Kagome tugged at the hem of her camisole, just in case it had ridden up.

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama!" the ten-year-old girl smiled brightly up at the stoic demon and pranced after his retreating figure, her argument with Shippo forgotten.

_'And the way she walks…'_

Kagome waited until they were out of sight before scolding the fox. "Shippo, what has gotten into you?"

"Huh?" he blinked up at her with twinkling green eyes, his jaunty red ponytail bouncing merrily in its yellow ribbon.

"You used to be so nice to girls!"

Shippo's face puckered into a petulant pout as he crossed his arms over his chest and glared over his shoulder into the woods. "She's an enemy."

_'So, so pretty…'_

'It's Shippo! Why am I hearing what he's thinking?' Kagome tried to keep her inner confusion out of her expression as she gave the kit a kind shake. "Sesshomaru _was_ the enemy, but not anymore. And how could a cute little girl like that be _anyone's_ enemy?"

Shippo pouted harder and Kagome decided to try a little experiment. "Don't you think she's _pretty_?" she said slyly.

Blushing harder than she'd ever seen a youkai blush, Shippo choked, then dissolved into a coughing fit. "No!" he finally sputtered indignantly as he wiped at his streaming eyes.

Kagome was hard-pressed not to burst into hysterical laughter, the only thing holding her back being the serious glare from her kit. However, she couldn't help just one more push. "Are you sure you don't think she's pretty?"

_'She can't know, none of them can know!'_

"No way! As if!"

"Okay, okay! I believe you!" Kagome set him on his feet with a small chuckle. "But it wouldn't be so bad if you did, you know."

"Keh. I don't."

"Fine, just don't fight with her anymore. It's ungentlemanly."

"Inuyasha fights with _you_," he pointed out with another frown.

"Inuyasha isn't a gentleman," Kagome said with a resigned sigh and reached into the front pocket of her shorts. "Now, close your eyes and hold out your hand: I have something for you!"

_'Oh! Candy candy candy candy candy'_

The strange litany stopped the moment the Decoder ring left her hand. She hardly had a moment to contemplate it when Shippo's eyes popped open and he howled happily.

"Oh wow, Kagome! Thank you!" He hopped in place clutching his new treasure, then stopped and held it up to an emerald eye. "What is it?"

"It's, um, a Demon Decoder ring…" she trailed off as an interesting thought occurred to her. 'What if…'

"It decodes demons?" he gave the ring a closer inspection, running his tiny claw over the 'fox' kanji on the top of the disc.

Kagome pursed her lips, and then asked, "Shippo, do you hear anything strange? Anything at all?"

"Nope!" he crowed happily as he tried on the ring and admired the how the cheap piece of orange plastic looked on his small hand.

'So this one works on fox youkai and the other one worked on cat youkai…why are demon artifacts turning up in modern breakfast cereals?' Shippo shot her a grin as he bounded into the village hollering for Kaede. Distracted, Kagome almost forgot to smile back. 'More importantly, do they have one for dog youkai?'


	3. Dog

A/N: Sorry for the delay. I've been lazy. And I've been working on Primal. See? I told you I hadn't abandoned it.

Thank you, all my reviewers on FFnet, MMorg, AFF and A Single Spark, and to my wonderful beta and sounding board thymecat. You guys keep me going.

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Dog

Xxxx Present xxxX

Tiptoeing with the stealth of a woman who had survived many a demon attack, Kagome crept quietly though the dark kitchen until her pinky toe wrapped itself around the leg of the dining table. Good thing there weren't any demons around.

"_Shit!_" she hissed through her teeth, folding at the waist and cringing as she grasped her foot in her palm and prodded the throbbing digit. "Ow ow ow!"

The luminescent blue clock of the microwave mocked her as it blinked from 3:23 to 3:24. Kagome scowled, knowing perfectly well that she shouldn't be sneaking around the kitchen in the dead of night to open more boxes of cereal. The look her mother had sent her as Kagome had propped against the back door the last black garbage bag stuffed with baggies of cereal should have been enough to squelch any mutinous thoughts of digging through more cereal. Should have, but wasn't.

She had to find that damn ring. There was just no way around it. What else could she do? _Talk_ to him? Now _that _was crazy. With a derisive snort, she dropped her foot to the cold linoleum and padded to the pantry, giving the dining set a wide berth.

If she hadn't been so clumsy in the first place, then she wouldn't have been in this situation. She'd had it and had been careless, but if Inuyasha hadn't made her so _mad_…

Kagome froze mid-thought as cold fingers walked up her spine, raising the fine hairs at the back of her neck. As if submerged in gelatin, she turned slowly to the kitchen widow, the blank eye of the night that threw back her own eerie reflection, wide-eyed and ghoulish in the blue light of the microwave clock. It was watching her…_something_ was watching her from the blackness.

A heavy thump shook the glass in the window and Kagome leapt out of her skin, her breath escaping her throat in a keening whistle as two iridescent green eyes blinked at her from the shrouded night.

"Meoooow!"

The chill was gone as quickly as it had absorbed her, leaving her twitching in the aftermath of a rush of adrenaline and feeling immensely silly: the kind of silly where one giggles nervously at oneself after having made a mad dash from the bathroom to under the bedclothes so as to avoid a bogeyman's invisible, snatching fingers.

"Damn it, Buyo!" she hissed at the cat, trying to swallow her heart back to its appropriate place in her chest.

Clearing her throat and briskly rubbing the back of her neck, she turned her back on the stare of the window and the family cat's pleading eyes. She opened the pantry, only to gasp in dismay at the final three boxes of Golden Puffs cereal that lined the shelves.

Completely forgetting her bout of the creeps, she snatched up one of the boxes and gave it an intimidating glare. The Golden Puffs bunny grinned back, flourishing a Demon Decoder ring under her nose. Giving it firm shake, she hissed at it, "You better have it."

'I'm crazy. Why else would I talk to cardboard rabbits?' With a sigh that welled from the bottoms of her heels, she marched to the cupboard and pulled out her favorite cereal-dumping bowl and proceeded to fill it with sticky yellow nuggets. Though the kitchen was dark and cloaked in shades of gray, her eyes easily locked onto the baggie and its plastic contents. Her blood pounding in her ears, she reached into the bowl and pulled it free.

Xxx Two and a half weeks ago xxxX

Kagome crawled out of the Bone Eater's well with a decidedly smug grin. The manufacturer of Golden Puffs' cereal toys did, in fact, make a Dog Decoder Ring, one of which she had safely tucked into the pocket of her skirt. Lucky for her, Souta was a shameless collector of all things stupid, from Pogs to gaming cards that he didn't play to Happy Meal toys, and with a well-placed hint about the hentai manga collection shoved under his mattress, he'd relinquished to her the entirety of his Demon Decoders with a growl of, "If Mom finds out about those, I'm _so_ gonna kill you!" and then had slammed his bedroom door in her face.

The small collection had comprised of another Cat ring, a Fish, a Raccoon, a Dog, for which she had been undyingly grateful, and a ring that had no kanji on top whatsoever. After squealing and hopping in a tight circle, she tossed the Cat, Raccoon and Fish on her bed and shoved the Dog into her pocket. The blank ring was dropped into her tote for future perusal and not given a second thought. A smear of lip-gloss and mascara later, she'd launched over the side of the well and into the past.

"_Yes I need, I need my samurai,"_ Kagome hummed under her breath, adding a hip shake and a bounce to her step. _"Ayi, yi, yi, I'm your little butterfly."_

Humming, grinning, and snapping her fingers, she crossed the clearing in no time and entered the verdant gloom of the forest. Giving the neckline of her camisole a quick adjustment and her boobs a small fluff, she glanced down at the short, yellow, flared skirt that swung about her legs. She looked great, felt jazzed up, and was more than ready for her summer romance to start – and she finally had the tool she needed to woo the shy, confused, mostly likely virginal hanyou. Now eighteen, she thought it was high time they explore the joys of sex together. Or at least make out. Or _kiss_, for kami's sake.

It only occurred to her later that though she had a ring that read the minds of dog demons, it in no way guaranteed her a particular hanyou's heart.

Really, it should have been no surprise to her when she spotted soul stealers sliding through the trees like spectral, insectile, salamanders. Nor should she have been shocked to see Inuyasha and Kikyou standing closer than necessary. Yes, they were just _talking_, but there was no mistaking the tense, yearning lines of his body or the softness of her normally cold brown eyes.

The decoder ring chose that moment to kick in and demonstrated another truth that she should have thought of before as a low, subsonic buzzing hovered in the back of her mind. Clear thoughts did not manifest, for he was merely half-demon, but the force of his emotions was almost crushing in its intensity. Love: brilliant, pure and untainted, resonated through her skull and thrummed with her heartbeat. It swept through her in a heady rush, as if she'd just plummeted from the top of a waterfall and into a pool of warm milk that buoyed and sustained her even as it dragged at her with an irresistible current back under the torrent of emotion.

For long minutes, she stood behind the thick trunk of the tree, face pressed against the rough bark as it molded ridged patterns into her skin, and basked in the balmy radiance of her friend's love, pretending for that time that it belonged to her but knowing that it could never be. Her love may have transcended time, but his reached past the curtain of death and clung with desperate tenacity.

With a shaking hand, she pulled the little ring out of her pocket and dropped it into her tote, and the deluge of feelings stopped with an abruptness that left her breathless with relief. As silently as she crept up to them, she stole away, a familiar burn at the backs of her eyes, not only for her shattered dreams but also in utter mortification. If only she had known how he felt before, then she wouldn't have pursued him as she had. She wouldn't have sat him for going to see Kikyou and never, in her wildest dreams, would she have considered him her boyfriend. There wasn't room for two women in that kind of devotion. If only he'd just said something!

'I'm a fool.'

Scuffing her sandals on the worn little path, dragging her heart behind her on a rope, Kagome sulked into the village. She wasn't going to cry: this was what she'd wanted to know, wasn't it? She was _not_…

'Drat.'

A tear had snuck its way down her cheek and was now hanging wetly from the end of her chin. 'And I bet my mascara is running, too,' she groused as she rubbed it away with the back of her hand, not surprised when it acquired a small black smudge.

"Kagome!"

Her head snapped up at the sound of Sango's voice and she hastily dabbed at her under-eyes with her fingertips as the slayer waved to her from the back of a giant firecat. Waving back with her other hand, she made her best attempt to appear as if she had a speck of dust in her eye.

"Hi Sango!" her voice rang out to the village square where her best friend sat with false cheeriness as she carefully dug at her eye.

Kirara reached her in one fiery bound and Sango stared down at her in resigned commiseration. "Oh, Kagome."

"No! I have something in my eye-"

"Of course you do," she replied with a pitying smile.

Kagome hated that smile. She'd seen it so many times over the years on so many faces: the sad upturn of the lips, the concernedly drawn brows, the eyes that shone with sympathy for unrequited love. At first, her friends had been angry for her, railing against Inuyasha for leaving Kagome to see Kikyou. Eventually, they had given up, but she couldn't remember exactly when their indignant anger had been replace by pity: pity, for she had held on to the crush despite all of his unspoken signals.

He _had_ told her: in deed and gesture, in the flickering of golden eyes. She had simply refused to listen.

"So, you're leaving?" Kagome interrupted the uncomfortable silence that had fallen between the two women, needing to fill the void with words that didn't involve herself or Inuyasha.

Sango nodded, relief relaxing her face into a true smile that held her strength and energy. Hardly aware of the tension draining from her own muscles in the warmth of Sango's friendship, Kagome smiled back. "Just passing through on my way to a job."

"By yourself? Where's your apprentice?"

Shrugging, her dark ponytail bouncing jauntily with the motion, Sango said, "I gave Akako the day off. Besides, I used to slay demons alone all the time!" She blinked as a thoughtful, almost sly expression crawled across her face. "Would you like to come?"

Did she want to leave? Skip town without a word to Inuyasha? Abandon a day of basking in the sun for an afternoon of grime and demon guts?

"Uh…yeah. I think I would."

For the first time in many months, she wanted to beat the crap out of something that would fight back.

XxxxxxX

Wiping her face with her hand, Kagome sighed as it came away with the last of her mascara and a generous portion of slimy green goo.

"They don't usually explode like that," Sango commented from several feet away as she prodded an unidentifiable bit of demon with her booted toe.

Kagome had to wonder what a youkai resembling a flying, bulbous sack of lime-flavored Jell-O usually did when hit close range by a sacred arrow, but there was still demon yuck on her face and mouth and it did _not_ taste like lime Jell-O. She assumed, anyway. She was not about to open her mouth and find out, not for all the smart-ass remarks in the world. Rubbing the last bit of clear arm-skin over her lips, Kagome settled for glowering at her slayer friend.

The ground squelched as the slayer strolled over to her friend, reeds and long grasses rustling against her leather body suit. The marsh was smelly, humid and treacherously soupy in places, but Sango picked her way through with practiced ease.

"You missed a spot," Sango tapped the side of her cheek with a remarkably clean finger. Then again, Sango had ducked behind Hiraikotsu just as Kagome's arrow had struck the pustulous youkai, bringing Kagome to the conclusion that while Sango may not have expected such a flatulent, messy eruption, she had certainly expected _something_ unpleasant.

As Kagome no longer had a clean spot on either of her arms, she glanced down at her trendy little tank and skirt in the off chance that they were slightly less slimy than her face and bust. No such luck: while they may not have been coated in the stuff, the splatter pattern left few large clean spots. Giving Sango another heart-felt glare, she stalked across the squishy ground toward her tote, which had been secured on a slight rise of earth, and fished out her beach towel. She hated to ruin it, but sometimes sacrifices had to be made for the greater good. And if she had puree of demon on her face for one more minute, she was going to scream. Or cry. Maybe both.

"I need a bath," Kagome grumped when her face was finally clean of the slippery stuff.

Sango opened her mouth to reply when a young man from the village called out to them, his voice wheezy from sprinting through the wide stretch of grassy marsh toward them. He couldn't have been more that fifteen, which sounded so young to Kagome at her mature age of eighteen, and his glistening, worshipping eyes didn't help the image. Clutching a crude wooden spear in one hand and holding an ill-fitting helmet to his head with the other, he skidded to a stop in front of them, bowing and panting.

"Lady Sango, Lady Kagome!" The two ladies shared a knowing look, then gave the boy similar patronizing smiles. His dark, overeager eyes had followed them the moment they'd arrived in the village by the marsh. Kagome had avoided him and even Sango, in her quest to find her friend a husband, had studiously ignored him. "I've come to help you!"

"That's very kind of you, but we have everything under control," Sango assured him, her smile tightening slightly as the boy adamantly shook his head.

"I wouldn't dream of leaving such _lovely _ladies to handle these youkai alone," he exclaimed as he adjusted his ridiculous helmet to a rakish angle, mussing his dark hair in the process.

'Great, a hentai in the making.' Kagome sighed and scrubbed at her arms with the towel, choosing to let Sango handle this one on her own. After all, the woman was nothing if not experienced with handling perverts.

"Lady Kagome," the youth spoke right next to her, starling her slightly. He bent down, picking something out of the muck and extending it to her with what she assumed was supposed to be a suave smile. Instead, he simply looked goofy. Poor guy, maybe womanizing wasn't as easy as Miroku made it look. Though why the guy was even interested in her, covered in green sludge as she was, was beyond her.

"You dropped this." Her eyes fell to his hand and she almost winced at the sight of the dog decoder lying in his calloused palm.

"…thanks," she reached to pluck it out of his palm, but before she could draw away, his grimy hand closed wrapped around her sticky fingers.

"Anything, for you, lady," he crooned in a voice that was as far from debonair as one could get.

'There's such a thing as trying too hard,' she wanted to inform him. 'And I'm not going to bear your children.'

"Um…yeah." Kagome pulled her hand free and backed up a couple of steps; suddenly aware that his intense gaze was not exactly fixed on her face. Catching Sango's mocking grin and throwing a withering glare back at her, she dropped the little ring in her pocket and dragged the towel over her chest, not missing his disappointed frown as her cleavage was hidden from view.

Then again, hadn't she wanted a little romance? If she wasn't going to get it from Inuyasha, what could be the harm in flirting with this guy, ridiculous as he may be? At least she could get some practice in for when she met someone worthwhile. Her mental debate made it no further when Sango's irritated shout shattered her thoughts, probably for the best.

"Damn it! There's more!"

The young man startled and hunched in on himself, but he held his ground and his spear shakily in front of him. Dropping the towel, Kagome snatched her bow from the long grasses, nocking and firing an arrow in a graceful, practiced movement, unknowingly earning her an appreciative stare from her admirer.

With a wet splat, the first of the bog youkai popped and showered the marsh with green goop, though thankfully it was out of range of the miko, who had another arrow already in place. A balmy breeze picked up, tossing around the stench of decay and sticking her skirt to a bit of slime on the backs of her upper thighs.

'_Just a little higher...'_

The words whispered through her mind and she was suddenly hyperconscious of the shortness of her skirt. She faltered, her arm loosing its tension at just the wrong moment, and her arrow made a wavering path into an unthreatening patch of reeds. Turning to glare at the boy from the village and give him a piece of her mind, she saw that his attention was wholly fixed on the approaching swarm of bog youkai and not in a position to be ogling her skirt, or more precisely, what her skirt was failing to cover. Face pale and jaw fully open, he was doing his best impression of a wall-eyed frog.

'I hope that isn't his "o face",' she thought uncharitably before she was hit in the stomach by an overzealous sack of shrieking slime. The youkai scrabbled at the hem of her camisole with blunt, pudgy fingers, and while it didn't hurt in the least, Kagome was seriously grossed out.

"Ahhh! Sango, get it off! Get it off!" Batting at it with her hands, simultaneously trying not to touch its sticky, banana-slug colored skin and still get the thing off her person, Kagome did what came naturally: she purified it.

Blat! 

Kagome wailed as the bog youkai popped against her. Another came flying toward her, howling in a lawnmower voice and wildly waving its spindly arms. She ducked; throwing herself to the ground and hitting the mud on her hands and knees as the youkai narrowly missed her head. Hiraikotsu whizzed by, slicing through soft youkai bodies with nauseating splats.

'_Ah yes, an appropriate position for a bitch.'_

'I am _so_ going to smack myself a pervert.' Scrambling out of the muck, she grabbed her bow and whacked the boy upside the helmet. He yelped and dropped his spear, cowering under his own arms as he backed away from the crazy woman and few remaining bog youkai. In a masterful swoop, the bone boomerang destroyed them as well and whirled back to its mistress, who managed to catch it without getting any of the mire on herself.

Speaking of which…Kagome glanced down at herself and groaned. Not only was her skirt now glued to her ass, she was coated from head to toe in a thick layer of demon yuck. It was sticky. It was foul smelling. It had better not stain. 'Next time I've got boy troubles, I'll just go shopping.'

"Kagome, what's wrong with you?" Sango glanced between her incensed friend and the youth, who was still sidling away from the two women and clutching his helmet to his head.

"He…he _slimed_ me!" she gestured disgustedly to her new coating of green goop.

"Not that! You hit the poor kid-"

"Did you hear what he said?" Kagome snapped back, wiping futilely at skirt to get it to lie somewhat decently against her thighs and thoroughly failing. As soon as she got the front to cooperate, the back would ride up and she knew by the cool air against her skin that anyone behind her was getting quite the show. She could feel the eyes on her backside. Damn that kid-

'Higher, little skirt…' 

"See?" Kagome all but shouted and then her brain tripped over itself as she realized from _where _the voice was coming. Sango couldn't hear, let alone see it: it was inside her head! 'Then who…what…?'

"He didn't say anything-" Sango stopped mid retort and stared over Kagome's left shoulder with wary eyes. "What is _he_ doing here?"

A/N: The lyrics Kagome was humming was from Smile.dk's "Butterfly". Anyone who can guess where the "o-face" reference comes from gets a cookie.


	4. Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weenie

Itsy Bitsy, Teeny Weeny…

Edited by my fantastic beta thymecat and nominated as Best Comedy for 2nd Quarter 2006 by sesshysjadedsamurai! Thank you!

Also, thank you to everyone who took the time review. I love you guys! Chocolate chip cookies for the following reviewers on MMorg, FFnet, A Single Spark and AFFnet: Anon (not logged in), Malibu Wolf, girlygirl138, Chaos-and-Serenity, swasdiva (I don't know what a Nickelodeon slime demon is – that was actually a Ghostbusters reference), Red Falcon, chibimenthos, P, Jayde!

This picks up where the last chapter left off.

Xxxx That same day… xxxX

The life of a demon lord is not fun and games, unless one makes a concerted effort. Even then, "fun" is in the eye of the beholder, which had better belong to the lord if everyone wants to keep their heads.

A casual acquaintance of Sesshoumaru, Lord of Western Japan, would not expect "fun" to be part of the steely youkai's vocabulary. A closer colleague would shudder and grimace at the bloody images brought to mind when pondering Sesshoumaru's idea of entertainment. The lord, himself, knew better: the greatest form of amusement was to be found in soft, feminine curves, firm flesh and slick, wet heat. Until the Izayoi Incident, anyway.

Regardless, he had an image and reputation to uphold, inferiors to intimidate and enemies to slaughter, not to mention a bastard half-brother to terrorize. One had to admit that it was a full agenda. But the desire to fuck with his brother was lessening as a more immediate and wholly more engaging pastime was presenting itself; one that was more suited to his taste.

Sesshoumaru watched out of the corner of his eyes the twitch of the girl's pert tush under her skirt as she jumped and spun around, gaping at him as her face flushed bright red. Her once yellow top was now translucent chartreuse with demon guts and clung to her skin in a manner of which he thoroughly approved. His right hand tried to twitch, responding to the delightful bouncing of those globes and the budding nipples that poked through the thin fabric.

The girl seemed to trip over thin air, clutching at her friend as she pulled something out of a hidden pouch in her skirt and dropped it into the hideous bag she carried. Nonplussed, the slayer steadied her friend and allowed herself to be dragged away with a single, questioning, backward glance at him. Ignoring her, for he had no reason to answer to anyone regarding his business, he continued on his way through the marsh at a strolling pace.

The slayer was also a finely built creature but had the scent of another male on her. Though the demon lord had had many types of females in his time, a taken female was off limits. It was dishonorable and below him; a trait he must have inherited from his mother for his father had found no issue with it.

His little hanyou brother was an ever-present, and rather obnoxious, reminder of just how deep that strain of dishonor ran through his father's blood. After all, he had had her first! He'd found her, wooed her, made her scream his name until she was hoarse, only to have her stolen away by his own father! In no time flat, she'd been knocked up and he, Sesshoumaru, had been left with unresolved morning wood.

And then the old dog had had the nerve to ask, "Have you someone to protect?"

Such a stupid, frivolous question: of course he'd had no one to protect! Didn't he remember taking his own son's bitch? Though he couldn't have helped but hope that the pup Izayoi was birthing was his own, just to spite the old dog.

The fault didn't rest solely on his father's shoulders: Izayoi had willingly vacated his bed for that of his father. He'd always wondered what it was that had instigated her defection. Was it his father's title, his jovial, genial nature, the way he wore his silver hair? However, he'd never asked: he'd avoided the woman after she left him and ignored the slight pang in his heart when he'd heard news of her death. Her son was no better than a punching bag.

After her betrayal, he'd decided that he needed a new diversion since womanizing had lost its luster. His reputation for being a cold, arrogant, yet virile demon lord was honed to that of a ruthless killer and human-hater by countless decades of fighting bloody territorial battles and quashing rebellious uprisings. It wasn't that he hated humans, per se: he simply had no sympathy for their weakness and showed them little mercy. They didn't deserve it, the fickle bastards. He didn't hate hanyou, either: it was a particular hanyou that he disliked and for the immutable fact that he had been born of a woman who had betrayed him.

Then to add insult to injury, the old dog had left the Tetsusaiga to his brother. He held no overwhelming desire to possess the fang: it was the principle of the thing. The sword should have been left to Sesshoumaru, to be given to his own son. Instead, it had been placed in the hands of the little twerp by none other than a human female: that _girl_ who had distracted him to the point that he'd lost his arm (and his father's sword) to the boy in a battle that should have been a hands-down victory. Two hands, if you please.

The girl had been intriguing from the start: mouthy, plucky, difficult to kill, and most importantly, had fantastic legs that she showed off with reckless, naïve abandon. Threatening her had prompted all sorts of interesting reactions from his hanyou brother and unintentional (or so he assumed) peep shows of outlandish undergarments. If one didn't include the lost arm, it was a win-win situation, and the arm would grow back eventually.

Just the same, he'd kept it in his pants since the hanyou and miko seemed to be devoted to each other, despite the fact that the boy had promised himself to another miko years before. Not that it stopped him from bullying his brother, for no other reason than to see what color undergarment the Shikon Miko of the Scandalously Short Skirt happened to be wearing that day. Hell, everyone needs a hobby.

Though as skirmishes were fought and wenches were kidnapped, swords were broken and re-forged, and the enemy was finally defeated, he came to understand several important facts: the idiot wanted both miko but was still promised to the undead one, therefore the live one was up for grabs. How ironic would it be if he were to take a would-be lover from his half-brother, who was the result of his father taking his own lover?

It smacked of karma. Maybe not. Anyway, he liked it.

XxxxxxxX

The crisp, clean stream laughed and burbled its way down the mountainside, fast and deep at some points, shallow and lazy at others. As it passed the Demon Exterminator's village, it leapt from a jumble of high, craggy rocks to fall into a wide basin ringed by boulders and tall firs. Catching its breath after such a long fall, it swirled around the pool and meandered by the village wall, not in any real hurry to continue the journey to the sea. For years, the inhabitants of the village had played in its waters and washed laundry on its rocky banks. Then one day, the stream had been completely and utterly abandoned: only the essence of the people who had once graced its shore joining its flow in little trickles of red with the rain.

Kagome was oblivious to all of this as she soaked in the cool water, a blessed relief in the warm evening air. Her brain was running itself ragged as it circled around what she knew was real and what her senses (and a stupid toy) had told her.

'I was hallucinating: that's it,' she thought with a small, decisive nod. She had seen and heard things that were simply not there and the hallucinations had been so powerful that Sango had seen them too. Because there was no way, in the three realms, that she had heard Sesshomaru ogling her boobs. Or her ass. It was impossible.

Sighing heavily, Kagome pulled her washcloth out of the water and gave it a firm wringing, watching as water pushed from the terrycloth to tumble down into the chilly water of the mountain stream.

"What did he do?" Sango asked, snapping Kagome out of her thoughts with a small jump.

"Huh?" 'He? Had she hear him, too? Oh kami-'

"You've been sighing all evening. What did that baka hanyou do?" that sympathetic smile was stretching her mouth again and Kagome finally caught up to the conversation.

"Oh. Um," Kagome stumbled as she realized that she had completely forgotten about Inuyasha after the incident with his brother. The incident that _did not happen_. "I saw him with Kikyou." At Sango's hissing, inhaled breath, Kagome quickly explained, "It wasn't like that. They were talking or something, but…"

Both women sighed heavily simultaneously.

"Kagome, some things just aren't meant to be." Nodding, Kagome slouched in the water frowned at her rippling reflection. "And you won't get a husband if you beat up on the new men you meet."

Glancing up, Kagome raised a meaningful eyebrow at her friend.

Sango blushed but pursed her lips. "That was different! You know what I mean."

"I know: I shouldn't have hit that kid. I just thought…never mind." Dropping the cloth over her face, Kagome hoped that she wouldn't have to explain her violence against the boy from the marsh village. She had thought that he had been the one making those perverted comments and had brained him. Sango obviously hadn't heard them and would ask too many questions that she simply did not want to ponder at the moment. "You didn't like him either," Kagome reminded her, her words muffled by the wet cloth.

"That's not the point."

Kagome stifled a groan. She didn't have to see Sango's face to know that her eyes had narrowed, her face settling into a no-nonsense expression. The teen knew what was coming, and wasn't disappointed.

"Kagome," Sango said solemnly, "there comes a time in every woman's life when she has the urge-"

Choking on a wad of her own saliva, Kagome sat up and sputtered, the washcloth falling off of her face and landing, forgotten, in the water with a splash. "Urge!"

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about; all women experience it sometime."

"Sango!" Kagome protested. It wasn't that she didn't like girl talk: quite the opposite, though she was surprised that her normally shy friend was going into such uncharacteristic detail. On any other day, Kagome would have relished this kind of conversation. But after what she had heard earlier that day, along with the images that her mind was supplying of how a particular demon lord might act on his thoughts, her traumatized, hormonal brain was going into overload.

"It's the most precious thing you can give to another, the gift of-"

"Gah!" Now she was getting all tingly! Good thing the water was cold!

Sango's face had dissolved into a dreamy expression, oblivious to the tumult of teenage emotion in the stream across from her. "And the first time you hold him in your arms must be the most magical-"

Now, this comment confused the hell out of her. Sango and Miroku had been married for months! "You mean you and Miroku have never…?"

Blinking, Sango cocked her head. "Well, obviously not, but we're trying."

"Trying?" Was it that difficult? It couldn't be; people did it all the time! Except for her, that is.

"Yes," Sango admitted with a slight blush. "Miroku can hardly wait for his first son."

Kagome blinked and opened her mouth. Then, she blinked again, pulling her resisting mind out of the gutter by its garter belt. "Babies? You were talking about _babies_?" she finally blurted in disbelief.

"Of course! What else?"

"Uh, nothing," Kagome muttered as she sank into the water until the top of her head was submerged. Babies. She didn't even want to go there. Too many things had to happen first, things that looked hopelessly remote and unlikely. Her only comfort was that she looked good, and covered in slime, no less. Small comfort, considering the source.

Then again…he wasn't so bad looking himself. Scratch that, he was sinfully scrumptious. 'This is not helping,' Kagome thought as she resurfaced. 'I'm doomed.'

XxxxxxX

Several afternoons later found Kagome enjoying a much-deserved lie down in the sun on a sandier part of the riverbank. Miroku, Sango and her apprentice, Akago, had left earlier that day to take care of an infestation of mole youkai in a nearby farming community, leaving Kagome to her own devices. Her book lay on the ground in front of her, open to a tedious part of the story (meaning that there hadn't been a steamy love scene in several pages) and she lay on her stomach, staring blankly into the water that flowed past her and idly knocking her heels together. Still in pursuit of the perfect tan and satisfied that there wasn't a hentai around for miles, she had untied her bikini top and rolled down her bottoms to just above her crack.

Life had been blissfully quiet: no hanyou or youkai to disrupt her peace, unless one counted Shippo, and she didn't. It was easy to please someone whose greatest desire in life was chocolate pocky and spinning, strawberry suckers and whose greatest pleasure was time spent with his favorite person.

'Though by the sound of some of his thoughts,' Kagome's eyes meandered to the kit dozing in the shade of a tall fir, 'little Shippo is growing up.' The idea left her with a sweetly melancholy ache in her chest.

A balmy breeze caressed her back, ruffling the tiny hairs on the nape of her neck and she sighed contentedly, resting her cheek against the open book. She had half-expected Inuyasha to come after her because he certainly would have known that she'd been through Kaede's village; he would have easily caught her scent. Her departure with Sango had been in full view of most of the village, so there was no lack of witnesses. However, three days had passed and there had been no sign of the hanyou. She wasn't sure how that made her feel. Hurt? Disappointed? Relieved? In need of some chocolate-chip cookie dough ice cream?

'Probably the latter,' she decided as the warm sunshine plucked at her consciousness with nimble fingers until she floated in a bath of oranges and reds, and then finally sank into darkness.

She was adrift on a rocking sea of melted ice cream, desperately clinging to a chunk of cookie dough to stay afloat. The sea surged and a milky wave crashed over her head, pushing sweet foam up her nose and down her throat. Coughing and sputtering, she kicked hard with her legs, trying to pull herself onto the wad of dough and only managing to dislodge a giant chocolate chip, which dunked her into the ice cream. Panicked, she floundered in the opaque liquid, hands waving frantically to catch hold of her cookie dough savior.

Something tangled in her hair, roughly dragging on it, and she screamed, cream rushing into her mouth as she vainly struggled against this new danger. It pulled her clear of the liquid and gave her a quick shake. Blinking ice cream from her eyes, she met a cool, buttery gaze framed by milky-white hair and magenta stripes. Clots of foam slid down a leanly muscled chest and collected south of his waist. Her eyes fixated on a small piece of chocolate adorning one pink nipple and she licked her lips. 'All I need is a spoon. Sesshomaru looks good in ice cream.'

"Stand up, girl," the god in cream and chocolate intoned, giving her another shake.

Miraculously, her feet found purchase on the sandy bottom of the sea where there had been no bottom before. She paid no attention, too wrapped up in watching the rise and fall of the chocolate chip on his nipple as he breathed. If she leaned forward, she could lick that tasty morsel from his skin, and then sample the flesh underneath. The claws in her hair seemed to read her thoughts, guiding her head forward to just that spot, and she grinned in anticipation, mouth watering and tongue already straining to taste him. She let her eyes flutter closed just before her tongue reached its destination, wanting to fully savor the deliciousness that was Sesshomaru and chocolate.

Her tongue touched dry, chemically treated paper and she jerked awake, her nose in the book and her tongue stuck to a pulpy page. Groaning, she propped herself up on her elbows and blinked in the bright sunlight, swallowing several times to wash the flavor of romance novel from her mouth. It took a long, sleepy moment for Kagome to realize that the demon in her dream was standing on the far bank of the stream, dressed in his usual silks instead of ice cream but looking just as delicious. And he was staring at her.

Her first impulse was to scream and she was about to do just that when a wicked sort of curiosity stole over her. 'Was it a fluke?' she wanted to know. 'Or would he really lower himself to eyeball a human?' He was simply standing there, his stance non-threatening and his yellow eyes glowing eerily, so she decided to take a chance. Without breaking eye contact with the youkai, she eased her hand into her tote and slipped the dog decoder ring onto her finger.

'…_do all human females lie in the sun with bare breasts?'_

'Bare? Oh shit!' Kagome shrieked and flattened her body to the ground, frantically trying to retie the strings of her bikini. Though her face burned with high color, his remained expressionless and bland, as if he weren't watching a buxom teen struggle with her bathing suit ties.

_'What a shame to cover such lovely flesh.'_

If possible, she blushed harder, sitting up now that she was decent and yanking her towel to hide everything that her suit didn't. 'Did he just think what I thought he thunk? Er…' she puzzled over the grammar for a moment until she decided that the important thing, now that she was no longer topless, was that he had thought she was lovely.

Kagome liked to think that she wasn't the kind of girl to have her head turned by a compliment. One would think that she'd been inured to compliments, especially ecchi ones, after all the time she spent in Miroku's company. However, her brain kept spiraling around that one word. 'Lovely, he thinks my flesh is lovely.'

The towel slipped down little, revealing the tops of her breasts and the vale between them.

He was still staring and standing as unmoving as a statue, and it was quite obvious to Kagome where his gaze was fixed. He blinked, a languid movement that only seemed to accentuate the stillness of his body. His lips parted slowly and Kagome leaned forward unconsciously, her tongue darting out to moisten her own lips as her grip on the towel loosened. Her heart suddenly seemed to be beating entirely too fast and the air that she pulled into her lungs was thick and heavy.

'_I would run my tongue along that soft curve.'_

Color and heat shot from the roots of her hair to her heels as her brain took the initiative and demonstrated a silver head buried between her breasts, his wet tongue tracing the taut skin of a nipple. Muscles deep inside tensed as her breath hitched in her throat.

"You will tell the demon slayer that I would use her services." Flat and silky as ever, his voice teased her senses before the words registered.

"What?" she squeaked, thrown for a complete loop by the difference in what he was thinking and what he was saying. It was as if she were interacting with two separate beings. 'Has he always thought stuff like this?'

He raised a thin, black brow. "You heard me, girl. Or were you…distracted?"

"What!" she repeated, less breathy and more indignant.

The brow disappeared under his perfectly parted silver bangs. "You will tell the slayer." He turned his broad back on her and spoke into the forest, obviously dismissing her, "I will return to the village gates at noon tomorrow. Be ready."

Climbing to her feet, towel and bikini forgotten in righteous anger, she planted her hands on her hips and unleashed her now lucid tongue. "Why you arrogant, pompous, self-important jack-ass! How dare you walk in on me then order me around! I should-"

Her tirade was cut short by a single golden iris that glared at her from the corner of his eye.

'_Feisty bitch. Perhaps I shall oblige her with a spanking.'_

Kagome squeaked incoherently and threw the towel at his now retreating figure. It fell short, fluttering into the water as the last glint of silver hair disappeared into the trees and she stomped her bare foot in the sand. "Jerk!" she hollered after him.

"Is Inuyasha here?" Shippo's sleepy voice murmured from his spot in the shade.

"No, it was…it was no one," she turned to the kit and gave him a reassuring smile. He was still curled into a fluffy ball, eyes closed and nose buried in his red tail.

"Then why were you yelling?"

"I was just thinking about..."

"Inuyasha?" the kit asked as he unwound and stretched his little arms to the side.

"Um, yeah…"

'I wonder if Inuyasha thinks I'm lovely? Did he ever see me as anything more than a copy of Kikyou? Does he realize that I'm a woman with…urges?' Kagome had no idea and the stupid ring she still wore was completely useless in that department. She found that she liked the idea of being admired as a woman. At least _someone_ noticed her. Really, was it so horrible to be ogled by a youkai that probably tasted just as good as he looked in ice cream? The spanking part was weird, but who was she to say…

Smacking her forehead, she blamed Miroku, horny dog demons, hanyou that didn't put out, and hormones for that last thought and waded into the stream for a much needed cooling off. The towel was long gone, of course.

"Kagome," Shippo yawned widely, "when's lunch?"

His question focused her onto thoughts of a demon lord and inappropriate uses of food that she simply didn't want to entertain at the moment. She sighed in defeat when they simply would not go away and waded back out of the crisp water. "Let's go back to the house and have an early dinner."

Shippo cheered and picked up her tote, the bag awkwardly banging against his legs as he ran up the path to the gates of the village. With much less enthusiasm and a tremulous quiver in her nether regions, Kagome followed after him.

A/N: I've got an update list going for this fic since I don't update as often as I used to. If you want to be on it, let me know.


	5. A Case of Nerves

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Beta-ed by: thymecat

A/N: Thanks for all of the reviews! I know many authors post this, but hearing from you guys really does help to keep me going. Lack of feedback means lack of interest, so it's rewarding to know that you like this fic and look forward to new chapters. I'll try to update more often! To answer someone's question - no, I don't like sweet cereal. Blech.

A Case of Nerves

Kagome shifted her weight nervously from one foot to the other, twitched the hem of her dress, tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, ran her palm over her flat stomach, then shifted her weight again, earning her a dour glare from Sango's apprentice, Akago.

Most of Akago's expressions ranged from mildly unpleasant to unequivocally hostile, her hard frowns complimenting the jagged scar that ran from her right temple to the left side of her jaw. Dark eyes glittered above a crooked nose and dared the world to step out of line. Akago was the only person who Kagome had been unable to befriend and the only woman with whom Miroku would not flirt, even if he hadn't been married. Perhaps this was the reason that Sango had taken the young woman as her apprentice, perhaps it was the tragedy that had scarred her face and twisted her heart. But unfriendly or not, Akago would make a damn fine demon slayer.

Smiling sweetly back, Kagome forced herself to stop fidgeting, even though she wanted to apply another quick coat of lip gloss. If anything, Akago's scowl darkened as she turned her gaze back to the road leading up to the demon slayer's village.

"He's late," Akago's melodic voice was at odds with her harsh tone and cruel eyes.

"Kagome, are you sure he said he was coming here today?" Sango asked as she mopped at her brow with a linen kerchief.

Shrugging, Kagome gave in to the urge to fix her neckline so that the lacy appliqué was centered between her breasts. Akago shot her a look of disgust, which Kagome ignored. "He said noon today, at the gates."

"Why would a youkai want to hire slayers in the first place? We kill youkai," Akago griped as she ground the butt of her spear into the earth.

"He wasn't exactly forthcoming, you know." The memory of his imperious words cut through a little of Kagome's nervous excitement. She couldn't explain, even to herself, why she was so wound up or why she had put so much effort into her appearance. She must have changed her outfit three times before being satisfied by how the dress accentuated her bust and waist and showed the tanned lines of her legs. Even her bra and panties matched. She was not dressed up for Sesshomaru; that was certain.

"When is he ever?" Sango agreed rhetorically with an exasperated sigh.

Kagome nodded and rolled her eyes, reaching for the demon decoder ring on her finger to give a reassuring twist and realizing with an ugly start that it wasn't there.

Akago leveled another glare on the teen and barked, "What's wrong with you?"

"What? Nothing!" Kagome denied defensively.

"Then why are you so jumpy and dressed like a whore?"

"Akago, that wasn't called for," Sango broke in before Kagome's infamous temper could get her hurt. An excellent demon slayer Akago would someday be, but she was seriously lacking in people skills.

Staring open-mouthed at the apprentice, shock widened her dark eyes. Sure, she'd overheard the whispers of villagers, some not so quiet, that she was oddly dressed or a demon-lover, but never had someone, especially an ally, ever called her something so foul to her face. Inuyasha's insults had been rude but never so blatantly malicious.

But Akago wasn't finished. "You want to see this demon, then? Have a taste for dogs?"

"Akago! That is enough!" Sango snapped with a quick glance at Kagome. If she noticed the furious blush staining her friend's face, then she didn't say anything.

For her part, Kagome was sputtering as her fury at the girl's words clashed with images from her own dream of wanting to lick Sesshomaru clean of ice cream. "You…!" words failed her as she ended the curse in guttural noise of frustration. "Like I would ever want to taste that stuck up prick!"

'Bad choice of words, Kagome,' she told herself as Sango gave her an odd look. Akago smirked triumphantly.

"Well, in case you change your mind, here's your chance," Akago sneered and Sango smacked the back of her head.

"You will be silent until this audience is over!" Sango rarely pulled rank of master when training her apprentice, but now was one of those times. She knew what was probably riling the normally taciturn apprentice, but the girl had to learn that not all youkai were evil. And no one insulted her friends.

Sesshomaru smothered a grin as Kagome's declaration of tasting pricks floated to him over the path. Little did the miko know, that was one of the items on his agenda. Just the thought of putting her lips to use made said prick twitch to a more "stuck up" position. Which, in turn, was the purpose of his visit here. The Lord of the West would never need the aid of mere human taijiya. Except, perhaps, to provide him access and opportunity to his soon-to-be latest conquest.

In fact, he had set up the little "disturbance" that would soon claim the taijiya's attention, and if all went according to plan, would also delay Inuyasha's arrival.

He had seen the hanyou traveling toward this village yesterday and something about the hanyou's determined set of the jaw and purposeful, if slow, stride had raised his hackles. It had seemed that the idiot had come to some kind of decision, and he wasn't leaving it to chance that it did not involve Kagome. And since Inuyasha more closely resembled their father, a promise to one miko would not necessarily exclude trying to get into the pants of the other.

He would have preferred to draw out the seduction a little longer, to savor that quiet battle of mind and instinct until her final, most fragile barrier was his to break. However, plans were not successful when dependent on luck and he had no intentions of losing this conquest because of a careless miscalculation. No, he would distract his opponents and move in for the kill.

'Impale her on my sword, so to speak.' He smothered another grin and glanced at the flustered woman who was trying to look anywhere but at him yet always seemed to end up staring at his chest. 'She wants me,' he decided smugly. 'This will be too easy.'

Why not simply steal her away and teach her the delights of carnal pleasure in the comfort of his home? Because this was more fun.

"Lord Sesshomaru," Sango cleared her throat before continuing, "you requested our services."

"I have," he replied in his most infuriatingly unhelpful manner. He had been working on it for centuries.

Sango blinked and Akago snorted under her breath. Rolling her eyes, Kagome smoothed her dress down her thighs, earning her a quick, golden glance that only one woman caught, and she wasn't Kagome.

"And what would that be?" Sango prompted, fighting to remain polite.

Sesshomaru stared at her in silence, wondering how long it would take before the taijiya started fidgeting like her miko friend. However, provoking thiswoman was not his main objective, so he finally answered, "Several tribes of beetle youkai are deforesting the lands that border the West."

He did not mention that he had been the one to stir their nest into action. He also failed to mention that they happened to be positioned directly between the slayer's village and Inuyasha's Forest, ensuring that the hanyou and slayer would be tied up for several days away from the village, leaving the miko unguarded.

"May I ask why you did not dispose of them yourself or have one of your vassals do it?"

'In order to fuck your miko,' Sesshomaru answered in his head, though out loud, he said, "No."

Akago hissed between her teeth and whispered to Sango, "You aren't going to trust that creature, are you?" Sango held up a quelling hand and Sesshomaru just ignored her.

"My fee is the going rate."

Sesshomaru nodded, stealing an almost unnoticeable peek at the miko's cleavage. _Almost _unnoticeableAkago's eyes narrowed.

"My apprentice and I will leave at daybreak tomorrow."

This wouldn't do. Sesshomaru fixed the taijiya with a bored stare and said, "They are a particularly voracious breed. You may find yourself too late if you delay."

"Maybe we'll take Miroku, too," Sango mused to herself. She wouldn't be prepared to leave until nightfall, which was a terrible time to go out demon slaying. If they were as nasty as Sesshomaru said, then they would need the extra pair of hands. Kagome could stay in the village and watch Shippo.

He supposed that he couldn't be too insistent about them leaving immediately; it would raise suspicions. At least the only human left in the village would be his prey. "Your apprentice will stable Ah-Un. I will take a guest house until you return."

Kagome's heart did a strangled stutter at that statement. Without the ring feeding her his thoughts, the pale youkai seemed to be his typical cold, arrogant self, staring through them as if they weren't worth the air they breathed. It was driving her nuts. She had felt his eyes flicker over her several times and was frantically missing his silent appraisal. Why was he really here and why did he want to stay? Did he like her dress? Did he still want to spank her?

"You will?" Sango asked, and was echoed by Akago. Kagome gurgled quietly to herself.

Pursing his lips slightly, Sesshomaru issued a whistle inaudible to human ears, and the two-headed dragon lumbered up the path from where he had left him, bringing with him Sesshomaru's trump card.

"That is a very unusual request…" Sango started, and then caught sight of the dragon and his rider, "…oh."

Rin's head bobbed with each heavy step, though the sleeping girl magically managed to stay in the saddle. Jaken plodded along silently behind the dragon, wisely biting back his questions and complaints. Watching the demon slayer's protest die an untimely death, Sesshomaru indulged in a mental pat on the back. Oh, how well he knew the female psyche: which of them could say no to a sleeping child?

Apparently, Akago could. "That demon is not staying in this village! And I'm not stabling its beast!" she snapped, heedless of her mistress's disapproving glare.

Sango's eyes glittered darkly and dangerously as she stepped forward to present her back to her apprentice and sketch a quick bow to Sesshomaru. Whether she liked it or not, Akago had to learn that demon slaying was not all hacking and slashing: there was an important element of client service that had to be performed. An exterminator with a bustling village and a long list of patrons could be more selective of their clients, but a struggling village with one slayer, one apprentice, an ex-monk and a part-time miko had to take what they could get. Coin was coin, regardless of the source.

'Besides,' Sango thought with softening of her gaze that Sesshomaru noted in triumph, 'that little girl is so cute, all tuckered out from a day in the saddle!' "Lord Sesshomaru, we would be honored for you to stay as a guest in our village. My apprentice will see to your…steed," she gave the two-headed dragon a wary glance.

Kagome had tensed herself for Sango's refusal, sure that the battle-hardened slayer would not allow the youkai to stay in her village. 'She must have a serious case of baby fever,' Kagome mused, trying not to think about the male who had been ogling her, and could still be for all she knew, but she didn't because she had left the stupid ring in her bag, and…! Squeezing her eyes shut for a moment, Kagome forced the youkai and the ring from her mind, instead concentrating on what she would like for dinner. Ice cream rebelliously snuck into her thoughts and she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Kagome, could you show our guests to one of the empty houses? The one next to yours should do fine. The rest are still in need of repair," Sango spoke to the teen, who seemed to be troubled by something. 'She needs a husband,' Sango thought. 'After this job, I'll take her to some of the surrounding villages and see what we can find.'

"Um, sure…" Kagome glanced to the taiyoukai and quickly looked away, not really listening to Sango's instructions. He was staring at her expectantly and it was making her insides squirm. It was ridiculous how easily he could fluster her, even without knowing what was going through his perverted brain, but there it was: she was thoroughly discombobulated.

"Kagome?" Sango repeated, nudging her friend's arm with her elbow.

She jerkily turned her head to her friend, her eyes startled and distant, "Hm?"

"Will you show the Lord Sesshomaru to his lodgings?"

"But…but the only house ready is the one next to mine…"

Akago snorted rudely in the background, leading Ah-Un to the stables. Jaken had already woken Rin, who was now standing behind the tall taiyoukai and yawning sleepily.

Sango felt the beginnings of a headache collecting behind her temples. First Akago, now Kagome was acting strangely. She hoped Sesshomaru and his job weren't going to be more trouble than they were worth. "That's what I said."

Giving herself a firm mental shake and a quick chastisement for letting Sesshomaru get under her skin without even doing anything, Kagome nodded sharply and led the way into the village, refusing to glance backward to see if their "guests" were following. 'Absolutely pathetic. Didn't you used to tease Eri for going all cross-eyed for cute guys? You're being worse than she was.'

It just wasn't fair that he could just stand there, looking all gorgeous and aloof, when she couldn't hear his thoughts! And since he thought such personal things about her, the least he could do would be to say hello, or something. Really, was it that difficult to be civil? And to think that she would have to spend a few days alone with that…

Kagome stumbled mid-step as the implications of that fact hit her like a door being opened into her face, a steadying hand on her elbow the only thing preventing her from kissing dirt in true, Inuyasha-like fashion. Glancing up at her savoir to thank him, her breath abandoned her in a traitorous rush as his golden eyes bored into her with all the gentleness of thumbscrews. Balance regained but equilibrium shot all to hell, Kagome broke eye contact and mumbled a "thanks", trying not to flee as she pulled out of his grasp and hurried toward where they would be staying.

'This is bad,' her frantic mind supplied unnecessarily. 'We'll be alone and that hentai inutaiyoukai will be sleeping in the next house …oooohhhhh,' she wasn't sure if she should curse or squeal. Maybe both?

But whom was she kidding? He obviously wasn't interested in anything other than eyeballing her, he couldn't be! In all likelihood, he would avoid her and she would be left to break up fights between Shippo and his ward. Great.

'I have to get a hold of myself,' she took a deep breath. 'I don't even like him. He's a jerk.' Another deep, calming breath. 'I will NOT let him turn me inside out with a look! Who cares what he thinks? Not me!'

"Right!" she said definitively, pleased by how confident her voice sounded. She turned smartly, and stared over the taiyoukai's left shoulder as she gestured toward the house. "This is where you will be staying. It has plenty of room for all three of you."

Rin yawned hugely and rubbed her nose. "I'm hungry."

Now, this was something that Kagome could handle. "No problem, Rin. Lunch should be ready soon up at Sango's house. Follow me." To her consternation, all three of them did, and from the tickle between her shoulder blades, Kagome couldn't help but wonder what the taiyoukai had on his agenda other than lunch. 'Damnit, I need to get that ring.'

With a quick apology, she ducked into her own house, not fifty feet from the guesthouse.

Knocking the bamboo door covering aside with an impatient swipe of her hand, she made a beeline for her tackily striped tote, reaching inside with splayed fingers that clenched around a familiar plastic circle. Without bothering to check what she grasped in her hand, Kagome hurried back out of the hut.

The trek up to Sango's house was unrealistically quiet and Kagome was beginning to doubt her own sanity. Maybe he wasn't looking at her anymore? Maybe the ring had stopped working? Who had ever heard of a cereal box toy that projected the thoughts of demons, anyway? And why was she so concerned with this when she had decided that she didn't care?

In direct contradiction to her own thoughts, and without giving herself time to question the wisdom of her actions, she bent over slightly to brush a non-existent irritant from her shin, knowing that the dress would ride up in the back and give him a good view of the backs of her thighs.

Nothing. Then, _'I wonder what's for lunch?'_

She straightened, mortified that she would do such a thing and miffed that the taiyoukai was more interested in lunch than in her legs. Sneaking a peek at him over her shoulder, she found him regarding her apathetically. Color shot into her cheeks and she stomped the rest of the way to Sango's house. 'Idiot. What did you expect, a round of applause?'

This game was becoming interesting. 'Is the female testing me?' he had to wonder as he watched her pick at her food and studiously ignore him. He was almost positive that she had intentionally presented her backside to him on their way up to the main house, and if he hadn't had an audience, he would have taken her up on the offer. Now, she was quite obviously mad at him. What was going through her mind?

With his attention seemingly fixed on some distant point through the little window of the house, Sesshomaru watched in his peripheral vision as the girl blinked quickly, and then shook her head. Momentarily abandoning her stew, she opened one clenched fist to reveal a strange white ring, on which was mounted a flat disc. She stared at it for a few seconds and then closed her fingers over it, once again hiding it from view. A gift from the half-breed? If so, then he had atrocious taste. However, it was good to know that the girl liked jewels and he, Sesshomaru, had access to much finer things than his brother could ever give her.

He took it as a good sign that she was not wearing the ugly little thing, though the fact Inuyasha had given her such a personal item bothered him greatly. Time was of the essence. He was almost surprised by how much he was looking forward to taking the sweet little human morsel. Now, to get the humans to leave early…

The mat at the door bent to the side to admit a handsome human male. Violet eyes danced with good humor beneath dark brown bangs as they sought out one face among the many gathered around the cooking fire. "Sango, my love!"

The slayer rose to her feet and blushed bashfully, giving her a husband a quick peck on the cheek in greeting. "Miroku, I'm glad that you are back early."

Kagome choked and started coughing, pounding her chest lightly with her fist. Miroku shot her a sympathetic look before murmuring, "Mmmm," in agreement with Sango, his hand squeezing her waist and threatening to slip lower. Deftly, Sango captured that hand in her own and shot him a mock-warning look, then nodded to the rest of the people in the house. He followed her gaze, his eyebrow quirking slightly at the sight of the taiyoukai and his entourage.

"I see we have guests! We are honored by your presence, Lord Sesshomaru." He nodded politely, unfazed by the taiyoukai's dismissive, "Hn."

"He's got a job for us: beetles, eating their way through his border," Sango explained quietly as she handed him a bowl of stew.

He accepted it gratefully and took a seat next to his wife, his knee brushing against hers. "I see. Well, it would prove a welcome change from driving restless spirits from sacred groves." Despite the disingenuous days of his youth, when he'd banished fictitious youkai and "dark clouds" from headmasters' houses, he was now a sought-after exorcist. His monk's robes had been discarded with his marriage to Sango, but his spiritual powers were nothing if not stronger with her love to support him.

Kagome winced as yet another barrage of thoughts hit her:

'_Sango, my one and only love, your butt is as soft and round as a ripe peach! How I long to cup your firm cheeks in my hand and spread them, revealing to me your womanly delights before I plunge my-'_

Dropping her bowl with and slosh and a clatter, Kagome jumped to her feet, a furious blush burning in her cheeks and creeping down her neck. "I need some air!" she exclaimed and fled the hut.

At least she now knew what that blank ring did. Rin's thoughts had been innocuous enough, as had been Sango's. Akago was just as angry and mistrustful on the inside as she was on the outside, and the cacophony of their combined mental ramblings had been enough to give her a headache. But when Miroku had stepped into the house and described in detail what he wanted to do with Sango's breasts, one act she had never considered possible with that portion of the female anatomy, she had forgotten how to eat and breathe at the same time. Not that she had had much appetite at that point. It was one thing to hear perverted thoughts about yourself, creepy as it may be, but it was a totally different thing to hear one dear friend thinking them about another dear friend, husband or not! And that last thought…

Sprinting to the wall around the village, Kagome pulled the ring out of her pocket and chucked it over the wall. Relief washed over her as she propped her hands on her knees and panted harshly. 'I knew Miroku was a pervert, but damn! Do all guys think like that all of the time?'

Finally catching her breath, she stared at the tall, roughly stripped poles that made up the wall. 'Did I just throw a ring that can read human thoughts into a youkai-infested forest?'

She took off running again, this time for the gates of the village. Paying no mind to the burning in her lungs, she flew through the gates and alongside the wall, trying to gauge where she had been when she'd thrown the ring. She was brought up short at the bank of the river and her stomach slowly sunk into her toes as she traced the water's path along the wall.

"Oh, shit."

There was little doubt in her mind that the ring had landed in the water and would now end up kami-knew-where.


	6. Duck and Run

Edited by thymecat

A/N: Just a warning – this fic is lewd (you may have noticed) and it's only going to get more graphic. The rating WILL go up – eventually (for every site by ffnet). Thank you for all of your kind words – especially those of you who point out favorite lines. I love that. It strokes my ego and makes me squeal.

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 6 – Duck and Run

Countless stars winked down at her like thousands of watchful eyes, accusing and judgmental from their thrones in the dark heavens. If she listened very closely, she could hear their spiteful whispering behind their hands and out of the corners of their mouths. "Inconstant," they'd hiss; "fickle," they'd murmur; "so much for true love," one would grumble and they would all nod and sigh and frown.

And Kagome would have to agree: if she weren't all of those things, then she wouldn't be lying in the grass and watching the stars as they criticized her. Instead, she'd be safe in her house, worrying about the consequences of littering a feudal stream with an item of youkai magic from the twenty-first century, or curled up on her futon and dreaming of her hanyou. If her love had been pure, she would have carried his torch, despite the fact that he loved another woman. She certainly wouldn't have lain awake for hours, painfully aware of the taiyoukai in the neighboring house and wondering if he was thinking of her, too. She wouldn't have slipped the dog demon ring on her finger and snuck to his window, trying to catch a thread of his thoughts. And she wouldn't have startled guiltily when caught by Akago, because she wouldn't have had anything to be guilty about!

"What are you doing?" the apprentice had asked, her scar puckering as her mouth tightened, her tone implying that she knew exactly what Kagome was up to and didn't approve; not one bit.

"I was…um, I wanted to make sure they didn't need anything, you know, like…" Kagome's mind had raced furiously, but apparently in the opposite direction of the finish line. Then, it had buried its head in the sand and Kagome was left with the old standby: evasion. "Why are _you_ here?"

Eyes narrowing to hard slivers of obsidian, Akago had taken an intimidating step forward. Still crouched against the wall of the guesthouse, Kagome had tried not to cower. "Stupid little girl," Akago had spat. "He'll ruin you, then throw you away."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kagome had denied. She wanted to believe it, too.

"You'll be a tainted, filthy, youkai's _whore_."

"No, I won't," she'd hissed back, her hand clenching so tightly that the plastic of the ring bit into the soft flesh of her palm.

"No one will touch you, even if you manage to wash off the dog piss." That said, Akago had strode away to the stable, the leather of her armor creaking quietly as she moved.

'Ew,' Kagome thought as she lay on her back on her grassy bed under the stars, Akago's parting words rattling around in her brain. 'But what does she know? She can't even oil her armor right.' However, noisy armor or not, Akago had had first hand experience with the stigma of being touched by a youkai, even though she had been an unwilling participant.

Sango had told her the story months ago, though she hadn't gone into great detail. Akago had been a pretty maiden due to be married to a nice young man with a bright future of farming and raising babies ahead of her. She and her fiancé had been taking a romantic, unchaperoned walk in the woods when they'd been attacked by a lesser nekoyoukai, who'd just barely managed a humanoid shape. The boy had fled, leaving her to its mercy, which hadn't been much. It had left her alive, but scarred and no longer virginal.

Her fiancé had wanted nothing to do with her and instead of allowing herself to be sold to a local brothel, she'd fled, stumbling across Sango by pure luck. Sango had admitted to feeling a kinship with the broken girl who had refused to submit to the tragedies that fate had dealt her.

Kagome felt terrible for her, she really did, but their situations were completely different. For one thing, she had loved Inuyasha for _forever_. At least, that's what it felt like to the eighteen-year-old. It may have been a doomed, one-sided crush, but it hadn't been a fleeting thing! She'd _agonized_ over that jerk! As for Sesshomaru, he was just as hopeless: as she'd expected, he hadn't said a word to her that could confirm that his lecherous thoughts went anywhere beyond typical, male perversion. In fact, he hadn't said a word to her, period. Lastly, and most importantly, she wasn't going to get sex from either one of them. It was ironic, really, how completely unlike her situation was from Akago's. The apprentice had had sex with a demon but hadn't wanted it; Kagome hadn't had sex with a demon, but wanted it.

Groaning, she pounded her heels into the dirt in an attempt to release some of her pent up frustration. How could she be thinking about Sesshomaru in that way again, when she should be moping about Inuyasha? And she had actually admitted that she wanted sex, and honestly wouldn't mind if it were with Sesshomaru. Not at all. She must have lost a marble, somewhere. It was rolling around the bottom of her bag instead of preventing her from thinking impure thoughts about a demon that she didn't know very well and who'd tried to kill her on numerous occasions. Who, by the way, also thought she had lovely flesh. Was she so starved for attention that she'd drool over the first cute guy who seemed interested in her?

Maybe she should have taken Kouga up on his offer when she'd had the chance. At least then she'd know if sex were anything to get all worked up about. She flopped an arm over her eyes, blotting out the stars that were now mocking her with their bright twinkling.

Here she was, pondering sex, Sesshomaru, and how she wasn't thinking about Inuyasha when she should be figuring out a way to get that blank ring back. True, it probably just washed downriver a bit to be buried in the silt of the river bottom, or caught in weeds, or swallowed by a fish. She desperately hoped so, because she did not want to explain to Sango that she had in her possession rings that could broadcast people's thoughts. Somehow, Sesshomaru would get wind of it and that would be it. She would die a virgin at the claws of an enraged, and righteously so, taiyoukai.

But did that stop her from wearing the dog ring? No…

'_Open your eyes, miko.'_

Dragging her breath in with a sharp hiss, she dropped her arm from her face and blinked up at a pair of shadowed golden eyes. Expressionless as always, he stared down at her from his great height, the breeze idly tossing his bangs over the crescent moon on his brow. He seemed smaller, less formal for some reason, and it took her weary mind several seconds to place it: he wasn't wearing his armor or the furry pelt that she'd always seen wrapped over his shoulder.

'Now what?' she wondered with a small tremor of apprehension and a healthy dose of irritation. It was bad enough that he had entrenched himself so deeply into her thoughts; she just didn't know if she could handle a front row seat to her own ogling right now. And if he _didn't_ ogle her…Bad Things Would Happen. She didn't know what, exactly, but they Would Happen, nonetheless.

Sesshomaru watched an odd parade of emotions wander across the miko's face as she lay in the grass, her arm carelessly draped over her face.

He had approached stealthily; stalking his prey, his mind clear of distractions as his careful steps silently bent and crushed the grass. She had simply lain there, oblivious to the predator that approached, content in the knowledge that she was safe in a slayer's village and surrounded by friends. Silly girl, hadn't the village been destroyed by a swarm of youkai just a scant few years ago?

Stopping an arm's length away from her head, he'd waited for her to sense him, letting the delicious taste of the hunt curl over his tongue and activate his salivary glands. Motionless, he'd stood there, inhaling her clean, soapy scent, following the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed.

Now, he was tired of waiting. 'Open your eyes, miko,' he urged silently, and much to his surprise, she did exactly that.

Holding her eyes for a long moment, relishing the way she gasped and squirmed under his gaze, he ran his claws through his long, silvery hair, knowing that the starlight would glimmer off the metallic strands and give it an almost bluish tint. Females loved that.

She frowned at him.

He gave his mane a little shake so that it would ripple around his body like a stream of mercury, a body from which he'd removed all accouterments, just so that if she couldn't contain herself, she would have unencumbered access to his virile masculinity.

Her eyes narrowed, her lips pursing into a fine, irritated line.

Unfazed, he let the corner of his mouth rise into one of his rare, nonviolent smiles. Lucky bitch: some of the females he'd bedded had _never_ seen that smile. So that she could bask in the honor upon which he had just bestowed her, he lifted his face to stare at the night sky, as if no longer interested in the human lying at his feet.

"_What_ do you _want_?" the female at his feet growled up at him. She didn't sound pleased…or honored…or seduced.

Sesshomaru cocked his head, regarding the uncooperative bitch out of one bright, golden eye. Perhaps this would take a little more effort than he had previously suspected. She had a fierce glare, he had to give her that, and the harder she frowned, the more her brown eyes sparkled.

Kagome huffed and flounced to her feet, standing with arms and legs akimbo as she glared up at the demon who apparently thought he was kami's greatest gift to women… 'Oh, excuse me. Kami's greatest gift to _bitches_.' Her lip twisted into an angry moue as he simply stared at her, unruffled, his head canting infinitesimally more to the side.

"Well?" she snapped, leaning forward slightly. She was so not in the mood for this crap. If only he were wearing a subduing spell! "What are you doing here?"

"I do as I please, human," he stated blandly, then added silently, 'as will you.'

To her chagrin, Kagome blushed hotly and his eyebrow rose into his bangs, his eyes gleaming more brightly than the stars. "Yeah, think again!" she bit out and stomped past him.

'The nerve of that…that…dog!' Kagome fumed as she stormed into her house and dropped onto her futon in a cross-legged sit. 'He was _preening_ in front of me! I can't believe he thought that with a smile and a toss of his pretty hair, I would jump his bones! What kind of a girl does he think I am? That smug, vain, self-absorbed excuse for an overgrown poodle…'

'Wait a sec…' Kagome absently chewed on the inside of her lip, scrunching her mouth to the side to get to corner. 'He was preening for _me_…'

"No way," she whispered to the blank walls of her house.

'Was he…? No. He couldn't have been. It's just too weird.' She bit so hard that the soft flesh of her cheek began to bleed, bring pricks of tears to her eyes. Despite the pain and the ferrous taste of blood in her mouth, a goofy smile snuck across her face. 'But I think he wants to _seduce_ me…'

It was ridiculous, but now that she thought about it, his thoughts had pointed to that conclusion. She giggled, hugging herself as she did a squirmy, elated little dance in her seat. So what if he was Inuyasha's older brother! He wanted _her_, not her previous incarnation or her ability to see jewel shards. Granted, he would have to try a lot harder if he expected to get anywhere, and that wasn't saying that he _would_ get anywhere…

But, oh! To be wanted! It was a giddy, tingly feeling, and now she was thrilled that Sango, Miroku and Akago would be leaving her alone with Sesshomaru. Falling backward, she grinned up at the ceiling and giggled again.

'_He'll ruin you, then throw you away'_, Akago's words popped her little bubble of excitement, leaving her thoughtful and, for a moment, hesitant.

"Only if I let myself be ruined," she spoke quietly to the absent girl and turned onto her side. After all, two could play at his little game. She had wanted a summer romance and one had fallen out of her breakfast cereal and into her lap. It was about damn time!

XxxxxxxX

Inuyasha had a bad feeling about…something, and he didn't know what to do about it. Usually, when he had dark foreboding twisting his gut, it was just before something large and hairy (or scaly, he wasn't picky) burst out of a forest or a cave and tried to cut, bite, claw or burn him to death. As of yet, nothing had attacked, though he kind of wished it would. At least then he would have something on which he could take out his frustration.

It had all started after Kikyou's surprise visit. Of course, he had gone to see her. No matter what happened between them, he would always love the miko; hadn't he promised her he would? And he was pretty sure that she loved him too. Wasn't her continued presence on this plane of existence and her infrequent visits to chat about nothing proof of that?

Thing was, you couldn't screw a clay pot. He'd tried. And no amount of water or Kagome's "Sour Cream and Onion Dip" could make the opening of a clay jug resemble a…

The hanyou blushed and broke eye contact with his reflection in the little pond, his ears flattening momentarily as his mind conjured naïve images of that most secret of places of the female anatomy, that which he'd only experienced pressed against his back as Kagome rode him.

"Damnit!" Groaning, he adjusted himself, wishing the pond in which he was soaking his feet was cold enough to take the blue out of his balls.

He just didn't know what to do with all of these feelings and urges that really hadn't started until several months ago. Well, he knew what to do with them: he just didn't know how to go about doing it. If his father were alive, he would have been his sensei in the matter of approaching and bedding females. He envied Kouga, in a way, for being able to declare to the world that a female was his, even if the shit-for-brains hadn't actually done anything about it. He was too shy to ask Miroku, fully aware of the teasing he would get. Going to his bastard half-brother was right out, despite his reputation in the youkai world of being a ladies' man.

And this brought him back to the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach; the feeling that something bad was going to happen. Kagome had been in the village the day that Kikyou had made her appearance, and then had gone off with Sango. He knew that Kagome had seen him with Kikyou; he had smelled her stale presence after Kikyou had left. Stupid fate, always giving him the shaft.

Then, he'd smelled his brother skulking around, and the bastard had left without a word. That was just plain weird and decidedly unsettling. What was he up to? It would be a cold day in hell before he believed that all the crap about "learning the duties of his birthright" was the only reason the asshole had been showing his face, lately. He didn't like to think about what that other reason could be, but his instinct told him to check up on the female he might love but definitely wanted to pork. And really, weren't Kikyou and Kagome facets of the same woman? So, bedding the living one was no real crime against the undead one to whom he was promised. Right? And maybe Kagome would agree to dress up in those miko's robes…then again, maybe not.

So, he was relegated to being rude to Kagome while trying to hide the pup tent in his pants, pining after a woman to whom he couldn't stick it, and experimenting with Kaede's pottery. Things weren't looking up for the hanyou.

Sighing heavily, he pulled his feet out of the water and casually sniffed the air before resuming his journey to the demon slayer's village. Since Kagome had not returned to Kaede's village or the well, it was the only place he could think of to look for her. He was taking his time, trying to work out these issues as they stumbled through his mind, even as the knot in his stomach grew tighter and his sexual frustration reached the bursting point.

The acrid scent of smoke intruded on his thoughts and he sniffed again. 'That ain't normal smoke,' he thought as he filtered through the nuances of the scent. 'That's anti-demon smoke…Sango?'

Holding his sleeve to his nose, he bounded toward the noxious odor. "Kagome!"

XxxxxxxX

"There are over one hundred crayons in that box, Shippo. I think you can spare a few for Rin," Kagome admonished the fox kit who was hunched over his prize and snarling at the young human girl. When he made no move to share, Kagome warned, "Shippo…"

"But Kagome!" he whined, staring up at her with pleading emerald eyes.

"Osuwari!"

Shippo cringed, even though he knew it would have no effect on him. It was the purpose behind the word, and he knew she meant business. With outwardly great reluctance and a fake, heavy sigh, Shippo placed the box of crayons between him and Rin. "It's not fair," he griped. "Inuyasha wouldn't make me share with Sesshomaru's whelp!"

"Shippo!" Kagome exclaimed in utter mortification that one of hers would be so rude to a guest. "Go to your room! And leave the crayons!" she added when he got up and moved to take the crayons with him.

"I'm so sorry, Sesshomaru-sama," she apologized politely to the taiyoukai who lounged just outside of the decoder ring's range, or so she judged by the silence of his thoughts. Trying to appear casual, she took a couple of steps closer to where he sat under a tree in the shade, one leg bent at the knee and the other stretched in front of him, his wrist resting on top of his knee. He turned his head to stare at her and she met his eyes for a moment, and then fluttered her lashes as she glanced away.

Slowly, languidly, she lifted her arms and stretched, arching her back and turning her head away from him as her fingers curled in the air. She had watched Miroku drool over Sango as she'd done this (though she doubted Sango had done it for Miroku's benefit), so there was no reason it wouldn't work on the taiyoukai. Another sidled step, and…

'…_she bares her neck to me now, yet growled at me last night. What is this bitch up to?'_

Kagome didn't understand the significance of her neck, but whatever it was, she was sure it was dirty. Better yet, she had him guessing. Ha! Hiding her smirk, she rolled her head from side to side, letting him get another good look at her neck before she placed her hands on the small of her back and pushed her chest forward in another leisurely stretch.

'_One more stretch, my miko tease, and I will take you here, in front of Rin and Jaken. And you will like it.'_

Her breath escaped her in a shocked rush as she fought against the flush that she felt creeping up her neck. 'Don't blush, don't blush,' she repeated to herself. 'He doesn't know you can hear him, remember? Act natural! Please, don't blush!'

Grasping at the first thing that came to mind to distract her from that disturbing image, she turned to Rin and asked, "Um, Rin? Do you have enough, um, paper?"

The little girl paused in her efforts to add red edging to the garment of the figure in her picture, who could be none other than Sesshomaru. It was an abstract rendering at best, but no one could mistake all that silver hair. Rin glanced up at her, then to her lord. "No, Kagome-sama. Could I please have more?"

"Sure!" Kagome responded brightly and hurried off toward the cluster of small houses. Several seconds later and with liquid grace, Sesshomaru rose to his feet and padded silently after her. Rin watched them go with a slight frown, climbing to her feet to follow.

"Jaken, watch Rin," Sesshomaru commanded the imp without turning his head.

Jaken, who had been dozing against a boulder warmed by the sun, seemed to wilt, casting Kagome's backside a withering glance as he responded, "Yes, milord."

"But Lord Sesshomaru," Rin started to protest as she came to an abrupt halt, but was silenced by a stern look over his shoulder.

"Rin, you will stay with Jaken."

She sat back down, a pout puckering her lips as she, too, glared knives after Kagome. "Jaken," she said, her voice querulous and unhappy, "why are we here?"

"Eh?" Jaken blinked bulbous yellow eyes several times before answering, "Only the kami know our fate-"

"No, I mean why are we in this village?"

The imp's face fell as his dissertation on the meaning of life was nipped in the bud. "Oh. You see, Lord Sesshomaru is…looking for…something and he intends to find…it…with her," he jerked his bald, green head in the direction Sesshomaru and Kagome had departed.

"I would help him find it! Why does he need Kagome?"

Jaken's eye ticked and he scratched the back of his neck, which had suddenly become uncomfortably warm. "No, girl, this isn't something you could help him with."

"Why not? What is it?"

"Because only matured females can..." he threw his hands into the air with an exasperated noise. "Bah! No more questions."

Rin paid no attention. "But I'm a girl and I have almost ten winters! Why can't I-"

"Rin! No more questions!" The old imp snapped and crossed his arms over his chest, leaning back against the boulder with his eyes closed and hoping that the girl would shut up. It was bad enough that he had to help his master seduce Inuyasha's wench by keeping Rin from underfoot; explaining his master's intentions to a jealous pre-teen had not been in the job description.

Kagome entered her hut with an audible sigh of relief and leaned her back against the wall, closing her eyes and laying a slightly shaky hand on her chest. Her body buzzed with disbelief and a strange anticipation; it was making her head spin and the bottom drop out of her stomach. 'He didn't mean it; he would never…not in front of Rin. But then again, he is a dog…'

The mat hanging over the doorway rustled and she opened her eyes, finding herself trapped against the wall by a leanly muscled masculine body looming over her. Slowly, purposefully, his head lowered until their faces were inches apart.

The little house was already stuffy and warm, but the nearness of him was a physical force crowding the air out of her personal space. Her mouth went dry as her stomach erupted into a swarm of butterflies, and she was finding it difficult to breathe. With a small, panicky squeak, she slid along the wall to the door, only to be stopped by his hand planted on the wall by her head. She froze and straightened her spine, trying to look less like a scared rabbit and more like a cornered tiger.

Clearing her throat and giving her hair a nervous toss, she reminded them both, "This is my house."

"Yes."

'Tiger, think tiger,' she repeated mentally as his rich baritone rumbled so close to her body and his spicy scent began to dig its fingers into her brain. His aura throbbed against her, his thoughts an unintelligible static on the edges of his presence. "You're in my house," she pointed out in a reedy voice, more to stall the slow descent of his face toward hers than anything else.

The molten gold of his irises flickered in amusement as he answered, "Yes."

'It's really, really hot,' Kagome noted distantly. Her knees were also shaking like wet noodles and if she hadn't been leaning against the wall, she would have already landed on her butt. Maybe that would have been a good thing, since his face was getting closer, closer…she could feel his warm breath on her face as he exhaled...he had the most voluptuous lips. She licked her own.

"I, uh…need to get…" she was barely aware of what she was saying as those lips filled her field of vision. Instinctively, with the last vestiges of self-preservation, she shrank back into the thin wood of the wall, sliding down to avoid contact with the pale flesh that was steadily creeping after her. Too fast, he was moving way too fast!

"Get what?"

As his lips bent and shaped the words, the tension in her knees snapped and she dropped to the floor, barely catching herself on her hands before her bottom hit the tatami. "Paper!" she gasped, and darted toward her tote, pulling a handful of blank leaves from a side compartment and brandishing them between them like a shield. "See? Paper!" and she fled her house in a very un-tiger-like fashion.

Sesshomaru stared after her with a puzzled, mental frown. The girl was sending all sorts of mixed signals, sometimes at the same time. She had not responded to his advances, something almost unheard of. She had flaunted her body and led him to her room, then had avoided him and run off. Was this some kind of miko torture technique designed to drive males insane with unrequited lust?

A tangy scent caught his attention and he inhaled deeply, trying to catch its source. Already at full mast, his dick hardened further and he didn't bother to suppress a grin when he followed the scent to an untidy pile of clothing. Moving most of it aside with the toe of his boot, he uncovered a small, pink, silky treasure that was saturated with the delicious smell. Pinching a corner of the unfamiliar garment with two claws, he brought it up to his face and gave it a good sniff.

'She wants me,' he confirmed with confident, male pride. He had to be clever about this seduction, form a plan to entice her, and then leave her no route of escape. Clearing his face of emotion, he slipped the little scrap of pink cloth into his kimono for future investigation.


	7. Gambling Man

A/N: Thanks to everyone who voted for this fic in this quarter's Inuyasha FanGuild polls! It got 1st Place Best Comedy 2nd Quarter 2006! Something I would have never, ever guessed of this little fic that I wasn't even sure I was going to continue when I started it. I love you guys! And thanks to those of you who helped "To Shed a Little Light" place 2nd in Best Alt Pairing and Best Serial. It really made my weekend.

And yes, I realize that I haven't finished answering the FFnet reviews – I have decided to go ahead and post this and catch up later. You'd rather have a chapter, anyway, right? In general, I don't put review responses in the actual chapter anymore because it takes up so much space, so if you want a response, please drop me an email.

This chapter gets a bit limey, but nothing you can't handle. Hope you enjoy!

Edited by: thyme-cat (thank you!)

Disclaimer – I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi

Chapter 7 - Gambling Man

Licking her thumb, Kagome turned the page of her romance novel, sighing in bliss as the hero swept his lady into his arms and kissed her soundly, silencing her rant about his flirty, irresponsible behavior. The heroine was such a little twit anyway: their current argument regarding his interest in her, which she thought was purely physical, had stemmed from a misunderstanding that occurred because she had been eavesdropping. Really, how could she be so blind to believe he only wanted her body when he put so much time and effort into wooing her?

Come to think of it, why did she read these stupid romance novels, anyway? The plots were all variations on the same theme, the endings were predictable, the characters were silly and often shallow…and yet, she was addicted. Big time. She loved the fluffy feeling she got in the pit of her stomach as she read those silly scenes and to imagine that it was her on the receiving end of each mind-blowing kiss. Not to mention the fabulous sex everyone had, where the lovers were a perfect fit, there were no awkward moments, and no one had to worry about birth control.

At least she'd had the day off: Rin and Shippo had had to be separated again after a game of tag that had gotten violent, Jaken was standing guard over the houses where Rin and Shippo had been exiled, and Sesshomaru and his dirty, dirty thoughts had been absent all day. Kagome wasn't sure if she was relieved or disappointed. After she had run out on him yesterday, he'd kept his distance, yet had seemed immensely smug, and it had made her rather nervous.

A gust of wind chose that moment to lift the edge of the blanket on which she was laying and it flipped over her head, sending a bag of potato chips tumbling over and its contents spilling on the grass. Fumbling to mark her place in the book with a long blade of grass, she sat up and pushed the blanket off of her, then tried to scoop the least dirty chips back into the bag. After a moment's thought, she slipped her flip-flops off of her feet and rose to her hands and knees, weighing down the edges of the blanket with the flimsy pieces of rubber.

"Oof!" Something large and heavy hit her backside, rocking her forward and moving with her. Bracing herself on her hands, she twisted around to see what on earth was going on.

Sesshomaru kneeled behind her, his lips slightly curled in a self-satisfied, I-caught-my-prey-unaware smirk, his molten gold eyes hooded by thick, black lashes. He bumped her with his groin again, grinding a stiffening knot between her cheeks and blinking languidly as her eyes widened to impossibly large saucers.

'_I feel your heat, bitch. Do you feel mine?'_

Kagome felt her face light up like a tiki torch and her eyeballs nearly drop out of her skull. In a deft, graceful move, she lunged away from his "heat" and smacked him across the face with her book. "Pervert!"

"You will refrain from assaulting my person," he said regally for a demon kneeling on a pink Hello Kitty blanket.

She wound up for another swing but he caught her arm, squeezing her wrist until she dropped the book. Yanking her arm against his grasp, she scrambled to the edge of her blanket when he finally released her, glaring at him as he settled cross-legged next to her and tilted his head back to gaze at the sky.

"What is wrong with you?" she finally snapped when he showed no signs of either moving or explaining his crass behavior.

"I would ask the same of you, little miko," he said mildly as he watched the clouds morph their shapes.

'_Two rabbits fucking.'_

Kagome snorted and reflexively glanced at the sky. Sure enough, two of the puffy clouds had grown pairs of long, slender appendages and one of the clouds appeared to mount the other from behind. Squeezing her eyes and legs shut, she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm not little. Give me back my book."

"I think not," he abandoned the sky to glance at the novel that lay next to his knee. Resting his clawed hand on the cover, he added, "But you may get it if you like."

Since the path to her book lay across his lap, she declined with an angry, "Fat chance! You know, you can't just come up to a woman and dry hump her, then expect her to fall in your lap!" He fixed her with a glittering stare through the corner of his eye and she winced. 'Way to spout your mouth off, Kagome. Why don't you tell him you've been eavesdropping on his thoughts, while you're at it?'

"Alright," he said, turning the full force of his gaze upon her. "And what, in your infinite wisdom, would make a woman fall into one's lap?"

"W-what?" she stuttered. 'Is he asking me for advice or is he laughing at me?'

He blinked in that slow, sensuous way that only he could manage, and Kagome's breath hitched in her throat. "Do you even know, little miko?" The implied jab at her inexperience stung sharply.

"I-I know! Of course I know! For one thing, you have to set the proper mood. You know, a romantic mood. Candles, flowers, soft music...date stuff."

"Date stuff?" Though posed as a question, his deadpanned phrase more resembled a dubious statement.

"Stuff you do when you go on a date!" Kagome snapped, trying to ignore the fact that she could count the number of dates she'd had on her right hand, all of which had ended poorly.

"I see."

'_Little miko has yet to be kissed.'_

"I have, too!" she leaned forward and yelled in his face, realizing too late that she had answered his thoughts instead of his words when his eyebrows shot into his hairline.

"You have, too?" he prompted, closing the distance between their faces before she could pull away.

"I have to, um, go…" Anything else she may have added to her lame attempt to cover her ass was smothered by his lips as they pressed against hers. Silky and firm, they moved against her, each slow caress bold and passionate. As if they had a will of their own, her lips bypassed her startled brain and matched his rhythm with hungry abandon. Thoughts of morality and resisting temptation wilted and withered like cut flowers left in the scorching sun, leaving only a yearning for more of what he could give. As one, their lips parted and he swept his tongue through her mouth, relishing her throaty groan before he pulled away.

"You may go," he said, hardly able to contain his smirk as her face hovered where he'd left it, her eyes still closed and cheeks flushed an enchanting pink.

"Huh?" She blinked her eyes, coming back to reality with an unpleasant jerk, in more ways than one.

'Now, she will come to me. My shy little miko will beg to fall into my lap...' And the things he would do to her once she was there! Just the thought of wrapping those slim, bare thighs around his hips and plunging into the darkness they hid was giving him a raging hard-on. Even now, her lips were curving into a small 'o' that he could put to very good use. In fact, if she were so eager, perhaps he should give her a small taste of what was to come.

"Unless you would rather stay…" his hand was on his sash when Kagome let loose a strangle cry and crab-walked backward, her face flaming red.

"You perverted dog! Get out of here!" Reaching behind her, she grabbed the handles of her tote and pummeled him with it, whacking his head and shoulders until he caught her arm and held her still, twisting slightly until she gasped from the twinge in her shoulder.

"I will not warn you again about violence against me." He released her and rose to his feet, sending her a cool stare before taking his leave. 'Inuyasha was much too soft on her. I will tie her down, if necessary, and teach her how to touch me.' He heard her squeak behind him and narrowed his eyes, wondering what secrets his new toy had hidden. She was almost too perceptive and the feeling that she knew more than she let on was beginning to crawl under his skin.

'_Inuyasha was much too soft on her. I will tie her down, if necessary, until she learns how to touch me.' _

Kagome shivered at the promise backing that thought. Maybe she should reevaluate her methods of dealing with hentai dogs, at least the ones without subduing necklaces. It had been an instinctive reflex to strike out at him when he moved to expose himself. She had been afraid, not just of the sight of her first penis (changing Souta's diapers didn't count) but of the warm, heavy feeling that had grown in her abdomen when he'd thought of literally taking her in his lap. Her body had responded with a strange ache and she had almost felt her legs wrap around him, his silky hair sliding through her fingers as he'd pushed into her. Even the thought of being tied down and helpless as he had his way with her was sending delicious, terrifying tremors up her spine.

Releasing a shaky breath, she gathered her chips and book from the grass, stuffing them into her tote. She was simply too wound up to do any more reading, and the truth was, being seduced in person was way more fun than reading about it.

She gasped, touching her lips with her fingertips as her eyes widened and focused on her own thoughts. "I'm enjoying this, aren't I?" she spoke the revelation out loud. 'Yes, you are,' her conscience answered. "Does that make me a bad person?" 'Why would it?' "I guess it wouldn't…"

A wide grin spread over her face as she shook the blanket free of dirt and grass and Kagome hummed to herself, _"Someone who won't regret, to keep me in his net, yes I need, I need my samurai."_ (1)

XxxxxxX

"Damn buggers," Inuyasha cursed as he tried to scrape dried beetle guts from the blade of Tetsusaiga. The stuff was like that "oatmeal" crap that Kagome had brought once; the dregs of the cereal had caked the bottom of the bowl with rock-hard lumps that had to be soaked off. At least the oatmeal had been a sickly gray; the goop on his sword was a rusty brown that stank like rotten eggs.

"You speak the truth, my friend," Miroku said, prodding a glob of mashed shell and antennae through the metal ring of his staff with a stout stick. Sango grunted in agreement as she chipped at a chunky piece of beetle that had become glued to Hiraikotsu.

"Dog breath," Akago grumped in way of greeting as she collapsed next to Sango. Amazingly enough, her spear wasn't terribly dirty. Her armor, however, was stiff with beetle yuck and she smelled foul enough that Sango scooted over to escape the odor.

"Bitch face," Inuyasha snapped back. "Go take a fucking bath. You reek."

"Go sniff someone's ass, half-breed," Akago made a rude gesture that the hanyou reciprocated with gusto.

Before Inuyasha could verbally retort, Sango broke in, clenching her fist as her right eye twitched spasmodically, "Shut up, the both of you! Akago, you do smell a little ripe and Inuyasha…I wish Kagome were here!"

The hanyou cringed, fully aware of the sitting he would receive. "Yeah, well, she ain't. Where is she, anyway? I thought she was with you."

With a particularly vicious jab at a glob of beetle, Sango answered without thinking, "She's watching the village with Lord Sesshomaru."

"She's WHAT?" Inuyasha was on his feet in seconds, hollering loud enough to bring the last few beetles down on their heads.

"Calm yourself, Inuyasha. Your brother is staying as a guest in the village and Kagome is acting as hostess," Miroku was quick to contain this new storm but instead brought it raining down on his head.

Inuyasha towered over the monk, brandishing his fist in his face. "How could you leave her alone with that bastard? If he hurts her, I'm gonna rip your arms off!"

Tired from a long couple of days of battling beetle youkai, Sango was past all patience with the hanyou, even if he had been of immense help in controlling the swarm. Momentarily abandoning her efforts to clean Hiraikotsu, she swung the giant bone boomerang at Inuyasha's head, flattening him at the feet of her husband.

"Osuwari!" she shouted at the prone form of the hanyou. "I swear, I don't know how she puts up with you! Lord Sesshomaru gave us no cause to fear him and was the one to hire us for this job."

Snorting, Akago smirked at the hanyou, who groaned and shook his head, "You _should_ be worrying about Kagome. Your bitch is barking up a different tree."

Snarling, Inuyasha looked ready to pounce, despite the growing lump on the crown of his head. "Why you!"

Sango clocked Akago across the back of her head, and then gave Inuyasha another dose of Hiraikotsu. "Shut up! If you're so worried about her, then go!"

"Fine, I will!" Peeling himself off of the ground and grabbing Tetsusaiga, he bounded toward the exterminator's village. The knot of anxiety that he had pushed aside in favor of kicking some beetle youkai butt had tightened at the mention of his half-brother and Kagome together in the village. How could Sango and Miroku be so fucking stupid? Sure, the taiyoukai had become somewhat of an ally recently, but he'd tried to kill Kagome on several occasions! But that wasn't what had him worried, exactly. He didn't believe for a second that Kagome would be interested in Sesshomaru, and he would eat his shirt before Sesshomaru would pull his playboy shit on a human…but even so…

Putting on a burst of speed, he raced toward the village. Sango, Miroku, and Akago could handle the remaining beetles. His instinct told him that something wasn't right. Whatever it was, he wouldn't let it hurt Kagome.

XxxxxxX

"Kagomeeeeee!"

She paused with her chopsticks poised halfway between the bowl and her mouth and glanced at the entrance of the house out of the corners of her eyes. Inuyasha appeared moments later, flushed, panting, and specked with rusty brown grime. A pall of anxiety and anger hung around him, but instead of feeling giddy with delight at his show of concern, it irritated her. If he was so worried, then why had he shown up days after her departure from Kaede's village? And why was he now glaring at Sesshomaru instead of making sure that she was okay? Jerk.

"You!" he shouted, pointing a grubby finger at Sesshomaru, who was calmly sipping at a cup of tea.

"Inuyasha, we're eating dinner. If you're hungry, then wash up and join us. You smell like you've been rolling in compost," Kagome said calmly and finished her bite. What was it with that boy and his proclivity for interrupting meals? And she'd worked so hard to prepare this one…but not to impress Sesshomaru. No, sir-ee.

"You heard her, Inuyasha!" Shippo piped up from his place at the table next to Kagome. "You smell like shit!"

"Shippo!" Kagome gasped in mortification.

"What? Inuyasha says it all the time!" the kit whined, seeing another banishment to his room in his near future.

"Just because Inuyasha does it, doesn't make it right! In fact, because Inuyasha does it, you should think about it before you do it!"

Shippo blinked several times as he sorted that one out, "Okaaaay."

"Hey!" the hanyou protested, "I didn't run all the way here to be insulted by you! Ungrateful bitch!"

"Wash. Up." Kagome ground between clenched teeth, fury crackling through her aura like flames. Shippo hunched down and tried to become invisible while Inuyasha reared back, almost cowering behind his raised arms.

"I'll go wash up, then," he mumbled as he inched back out of the door, bracing himself to meet the dirt at any moment. Shippo shuddered.

'_She is alluring when she is angry.'_

Sesshomaru's silent appraisal help cool her fury so that when, several minutes later, a subdued, more polite Inuyasha entered the hut and took a seat at the empty foot of the table, she didn't sit him into hell. An uneasy silence fell over the little table; Rin and Shippo even refrained from bickering as Sesshomaru pointedly ignored Inuyasha and Inuyasha glared daggers at his brother.

Kagome sighed, taking another bite of rice before brushing her thigh with her hand as something tickled the bend of her knee that lay just under the table. Was it too much to ask for a tranquil dinner and maybe a few compliments on her home cooking? At least the taiyoukai had eaten it, though why that had made Rin mad was beyond her. The girl had sent her a look so vile that she'd laughed out loud, the expression comically out of place on the innocent's face. Rin hadn't appreciated that, either.

She didn't know what to think of that kiss, either. He had been right, in a way: she hadn't been kissed _properly_. A quick peck on the lips of your would-be boyfriend to quell his demon blood didn't really count as a kiss. But Sesshomaru's kiss had been enough to spark a wanton burning in her blood that had yet to give her any peace. She'd even had to change her underwear, her previous pair being soaked through and thoroughly uncomfortable. Strangely enough, her favorite pink pair of panties had gone missing from the dirty clothes pile.

The tickle was back, now between her knees and inching under the hem of her skirt. 'Shippo should watch that tail of his,' she thought as she discretely tried to smooth her skirt and remove the soft fur. It twitched against her hand and she smiled slightly as she pushed it back under the table. 'Little Shippo is growing up! I didn't realize that his tail had gotten so long!'

She gave the kit a fond smile and was mildly surprised to see him sneaking glances at Rin's sullen face. The pre-teen was scowling at her dinner and picking at it, scooting rice around her bowl instead of actually eating it, her bangs hiding her eyes.

'Maybe he doesn't realize he's doing it?' she thought as she picked up her own bowl. As soon as her hands were occupied, the piece of fluff slipped under her skirt again, moving into the slight gap between her folded legs to brush her inner thigh. Heat shot into her cheeks and nether regions at that feather-light caress, and she realized that it wasn't Shippo's tail that was stroking her so intimately.

'_Are you ticklish, little miko?'_

Slowly, casually, her eyeballs creaking in their sockets, she slid her eyes to Sesshomaru. Sure enough, he was wearing his giant fluffy boa, the end of which disappeared under the table. He sat placidly sipping his tea, staring at some spot on the wall as if he weren't the instigator of such lechery. 'Don't make a scene, Kagome! Inuyasha is here and he'd be furious! Act natural.' Aghast that she'd allow such liberties to a man that she knew was after her booty but thrilled by the sheer naughtiness of his actions, she ate her rice in the most natural disposition she could muster, considering someone's Mokomoko-sama was now curled against the crotch of her decidedly wet panties.

Inuyasha stopped scarfing his food long enough to take an appreciative sniff. His eyes fell on Kagome, who blushed under his scrutiny and fixed her eyes on her meal, not needing the dog demon ring to get a clear idea that he liked what he smelled. He flushed in turn, returning to his food with renewed vigor but not before he had restlessly shifted in his seat.

'Is that thing a part of him? I know it isn't a tail…' she had to wonder as the soft, pointed tip snaked underneath the elastic band circling one thigh. Her question was answered as the demon decoder fed her another thought:

'_So hot and slippery…you are ready for me, little miko.'_

'Oh kami,' Kagome hissed as it slid over heated, swollen flesh, pressed tightly against her by her own underwear. She didn't miss the darted glances of the hanyou nor his squirming and adjustment of his hakama, but she had more important things to think about. 'Is this what he wants to tie me up with?'

Thankfully, Rin was still pouting and Shippo was still eyeing Rin. Jaken, on the other hand, was rolling his buggy yellow eyes and sighing into his rice.

The tip of the fur touched a particularly sensitive spot and she dropped her bowl with a clatter, scattering rice over the table. Inuyasha startled and dropped his own bowl, releasing a high-pitched yelp that earned him a condescending look from his brother.

Inuyasha ignored him and swore, "Fuck! You're such a klutz, Kagome!"

"Oooowa," was as close to "osuwari" as Kagome got when the fur pressed her button again, sending a frisson of pleasure shooting through her belly.

"Jumpy, are we, half-breed?" Sesshomaru spoke for the first time since the hanyou had arrived, a sneer dripping off his words though his face remained as impassive as always.

"Shut your ugly face!" Inuyasha snapped as he dropped his hands in his lap, trying to hide the peak in his pants that had risen in response to the pungent scent of Kagome. 'Bitch is gonna kill me. If I'd known that she'd miss me this much, I would've come sooner!'

"Do you smell something that your hanyou nose can't handle?"

'I can't sit here and be…fingered…by Sesshomaru while he squabbles with Inuyasha,' Kagome thought frantically as that talented length of fur tunneled closer to the source of her ache. "S'cuse me," she mumbled, crawling backward on her knees and, with much disappointment, felt the fur slip out of her panties.

"My nose can handle it just fine!" came Inuyasha's retort as she escaped into the dark coolness of the evening air.

Panting slightly as she leaned her side against the wall of the house, she rested her hands on her hot cheeks. 'I can't believe I let…in front of…but oooh,' a hand crept down to press against her lower stomach that still throbbed from Sesshomaru's ministrations. It had felt wicked and wonderful; better than she had ever imagined being touched there could feel, and the public yet clandestine nature of it had only added to the excitement.

A hand latched onto her bottom, giving it an experimental squeeze, and she whirled around, though kept her hands to herself. "Sesshomaru, you hentai…oh."

Inuyasha gaped at her, hand still in groping position. His ears flattened and his nostrils quivered as his mouth worked soundlessly. Kagome could only stand and stare, cursing herself for her careless mistake as wave after wave of shocked bewilderment pulsed from her friend. Finally, the hanyou found his voice. "K-kagome?"

"I…I'm…"

"Kagome, what did you…?"

With a wordless cry, she spun on her heels and fled toward her house. Sesshomaru stepped out of the house in time to see her white legs flashing as she ran, just before she disappeared behind a building.

Inuyasha rounded on him, rage stiffening the lines of his body. "You!" he bellowed, clenching and unclenching his fists, knuckles cracking with each movement. "You!"

"I." Sesshomaru confirmed mildly, watching the hanyou sputter with amused boredom. "And your vocabulary, such as it is, has failed you."

"You keep your filthy _hand_ off of Kagome!" Curling his fist in front of his face, he snarled and brandished his claws.

"Nowhere on her is your name written, little brother."

"WHAT?" he hollered, momentarily unable to come to terms with the implications of that statement. Only Tetsusaiga at his hip kept his demon blood at bay and he was sorely pressed not to fling it away and tear into the smug bastard standing in front of him. "How much have you seen!"

"Enough."

Inuyasha roared and wrenched Tetsusaiga from its sheath, swinging wildly at his tormentor. With a quick, backhanded slap, Sesshomaru disarmed the hanyou and then grabbed his throat, squeezing until the boy was blue in the face but in no real danger of dying. Couldn't have him transforming into a full demon and going on a rampage; it would lessen his chances of bedding Kagome in the immediate future.

"Cease this foolishness, half-breed. The bitch is unclaimed and you are promised to another." Inuyasha wheezed and gurgled, swinging his legs as he pried at his brother's fingers. "I am within my rights."

Sputtering, Inuyasha tugged harder at the fingers around his neck but stopped kicking his legs. With a final shake, the taiyoukai set him on his feet, though held himself ready to strike if need be.

"Kagome is mine, you hear me? She's Kikyou's reincarnation and that makes her mine!"

"That you choose the dead is not this Sesshomaru's concern. The living miko does not belong to you."

"It's not like she'd have you anyway, jackass. She has better taste than that."

"Are you so confident?"

"Damn straight!"

"Very well. If the miko accepts my advances," Sesshomaru drawled, 'which she will,' he added silently to himself, "then you will stop this ridiculous possessiveness and drop any claim you may _think_ you have on her. She will be mine, alone. If she chooses you, then you have sole rights to her."

Inuyasha growled, his hackles rising, "You're fucking stupid if you think-"

"Not so confident, after all, half-breed?"

Fuming, he cursed fluently as he stomped his feet. He'd known something was wrong but would never have guessed that his prick of a half-brother would try to steal Kagome out from under his nose. From what he'd seen tonight, the bastard's attempts were frighteningly successful. He may not love the girl, not how she wanted him to, but he sure as hell wasn't going to let Sesshomaru have her. Unfortunately, Kagome's heady scent was still so strong that he was having trouble thinking clearly. "And if I don't agree?"

"I will claim her in the youkai way this night," he slipped the pink treasure from his sleeve and held it aloft, then waved the tip of his Mokomoko-sama, still damp with the miko's juices, under the boy's nose. "You will not be able to stop me."

Inuyasha couldn't help but follow the twitching fur with his nose as his pants tightened and his eyes crossed. "Is that Kagome's…under-thing!" He made a desperate swipe for the panties, but Sesshomaru snatched them out of his reach and tucked them into his sleeve, raising a haughty eyebrow.

The hanyou was in a bind. He had little doubt that if Sesshomaru so desired, he could abscond with Kagome before he was able to summon a good Wind Scar. He was just too damn fast. His choices were to lose Kagome now or fight to keep the bastard away from her and get some action on the side. Some fucking choice. "Yeah, well if she chooses me then you keep your dirty paws offa her!"

"Done."

"Fine!"

The brothers glared at each other, each daring the other to go back on the bet. When neither did, they relaxed their stances slightly, Inuyasha tucking his hands into his sleeves as Sesshomaru raised his eyes to the night sky.

"You're so gonna lose," Inuyasha broke the silence to gloat.

"Unlikely," Sesshomaru watched a far-off star streak across the sky and vanish into darkness. He hated to ask, but he could see no way around it. Now that seducing the miko was about winning as much as it was about amusement, he had to gain as much insight into his enemy's strengths as he could. "Little brother, have you gone on a "date"?"

"What the fuck is a date?"

"Nothing of importance," he blew off the question and turned his back on his half-brother. "You are a dishonorable cur, Inuyasha, just like the old dog. I look forward to your expression when Kagome is fat with my pup." Without a backward glance, he strode away, heading toward his house. "This game starts tomorrow at dawn."

"Hey! No one said anything about pups! Hey, bastard, I'm talkin' to you!" Inuyasha shouted after him, but Sesshomaru ignored him, a sinful grin stretching his lips as he contemplated the fun he was going to have with his little miko. So, he'd upped the ante just a bit more than he'd originally intended, but what was a bastard child or two? Lords were entitled to them.

(1) "Butterfly" by Smile.dk. Every girl needs a theme song.


	8. Too Much of a Good Thing

Edited by thymecat

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 8 – Too Much of a Good Thing

"Osuwari!"

Inuyasha hit the floor of Kagome's little house with a surprised yip, toppling a small pile of brightly colored bits of cloth into a scattered mess. Standing in the doorway, wet hair dripping down the back of her bathrobe, Kagome glared murder at the hanyou who now lay face first in her dirty clothes, trying not to explode with anger and embarrassment like a star going supernova. There had to be a good reason for the hanyou to be picking through her underwear.

"What are you doing in my laundry," she growled, her hand clenching around the strings of her shower bag.

"Kagome!" he yelped, his ears flattening to his hair and his voice muffled by silky fabric. "It's not what you think! Sesshomaru-"

"Osuwari!" she shouted before she could stop herself. She'd had a sleepless night, first dreading a tearful conversation with Inuyasha that had never happened, then replaying the action of a certain tuft of fluff through her mind until she'd been squirming and panting. Finally, she cursed herself as a hormonal little tramp for letting him touch her like that, and in front of her friends, no less! Her mother would be so disappointed. So, after tossing, turning, and crying a little, she'd gotten up just before dawn for a well-needed bath. The last thing she wanted to hear first thing in the morning was the name of the demon who was the source of all of her problems.

It would be just like Inuyasha to make his own brand of trouble.

The second sitting had forced him further under the pile, and now only two silver ears were visible under her clothing, flicking up and down as he flailed his arms. "No, you don't understand! He-"

"You still haven't answered my question! What are you DOING in my LAUNDRY!"

"Sesshomaru-"

"OSUWARI!"

"To think my blood runs in his veins…" a smooth voice spoke next to her right ear, tickling the baby hairs that grew at the edge of her hairline. Kagome jumped, stumbling into her house and casting a startled look over her shoulder. Sesshomaru stood framed by the door, silver hair backlit by the pink light of dawn, looking much too perfect for that early in the morning. He may have spoken about his brother, but his golden eyes were fixed on her. Giving his hair a toss, he ambled into the room.

"Don't you know how to knock?" Kagome snapped at him, backing away from him as she eyed him for hidden Mokomoko-samas. For a moment, she thought she was safe, until she stepped on something round that rolled under her foot. "Eeeaah!"

Shrieking, she fell backward onto a bellowing hanyou, knocking the air out of both of their lungs. He was the first to recover, "Get your fucking elbow out of my back!"

"It wouldn't _be_ in your back if you weren't in here in the first place!" she gave him a sharp jab with her elbow to accentuate her point, feeling no guilt at his painful exclamation.

In one easy stride, Sesshomaru reached her and extended his hand, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to her feet against his side despite her protests. Eyeing his still prone brother on the floor with distaste, he said, "You are clearly not wanted here, half-breed. I suggest that you leave."

Inuyasha shook his head, turning loose a yellow bra that had gotten hooked over one ear.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome protested, sure she was going to drop dead of mortification at any moment. No one should have to see their best _male_ friend wearing their braziers.

"Asshole! I ain't leaving-" he stopped mid-sentence as Sesshomaru shifted slightly, rubbing his side against Kagome, who gave him a confused glance. "The fuck are you doing?"

"Yeah, what are you doing?" Kagome asked as the taiyoukai lightly bumped her with his hip again, smoothing the silk of his hakama over her terry cloth bathrobe. 'This is weird.' She waited for some kind of lascivious remark to spill from his mind yet she received nothing but silence. 'Ah crap, did I leave that stupid ring under my pillow?'

Inuyasha's clawed fingers wrapped around her ankle and she squeaked, startling away from them and falling into Sesshomaru, who took the opportunity to rub his chest against her back and his cheek across the top of her head. Inuyasha growled from the floor and tugged at her ankle, almost pulling her back down to the floor. Trying to kick her foot from his grasp, she tolerated whatever bizarre crap the taiyoukai had decided to pull in favor of using him as a balance.

"Sesshomaru!" Inuyasha sputtered angrily from the floor, rising to his knees and one hand as he jerked on her foot. "If you don't knock that shit off, I'm gonna-"

"Osuwari!" Kagome yelled when he released her ankle and grabbed her knee, his claws poking tiny holes in her bathrobe. His grip slackened in surprise as the subduing rosary wrenched his neck to the floor.

"And why would she want the stink of a half-breed on her person?" the taiyoukai smugly asked his humiliated, prostrate brother.

Voice muffled by the tatami, Inuyasha growled, "Better than your stench!"

No longer hindered by Inuyasha's hand on her leg, Kagome hopped over his red-clad back and scurried to the other side of her house, diving for her tote. From a small, zippered compartment, she pulled out a small bottle of perfume: light and citrusy when applied in small doses. 'If it's scent that worries them, then I'll give them a reason to complain!'

With warning for their sensitive doggie noses, she pushed the plunger twice, grinning as Shiseido's Zen permeated the cabin. Sesshomaru, who was in the process of stepping over Inuyasha, froze with his foot in the air, his eyes wide and startled. For a moment, Kagome thought he might try to brave the perfume but an instant later he was gone in a rush of wind.

The unfortunate Inuyasha was not so lucky. Groaning as he struggled against the subduing spell, Kagome almost felt sorry for him when he broke into a series of violent sneezes. Almost.

"Evil wench," he moaned when he could finally form words and sat up, shaking his head so hard that his ears flapped against his hair.

"If I ever catch you in my laundry again…" Kagome warned him, giving the bottle a little shake, knowing that he'd hear the liquid slosh inside.

"Yipe!" he lunged for the door and was out of her room in a red flash.

XxxxxxxxX

Kagome sat straddling a thick, sturdy branch of one of the trees that grew within the wall of the demon exterminators' village, her back against the trunk and her arms crossed securely over her chest. Trees weren't her usual habitat; they were difficult to get into and weren't terribly comfy, not to mention climbing them in a skirt showed way more than she was comfortable showing. However, desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Achoo!" Inuyasha sneezed from below and then snuffled loudly. "Stupid girl."

"Serves you right, Inuyasha!" Kagome yelled down at him and patted the tiny bottle of perfume that she had brought with her from the future. Its original purpose was to attract the interest of a particular hanyou; she found it ironic that she now used it to force him to keep his distance. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Inuyasha grumbled something unintelligible and she sighed, shifting her bottom on her perch and resigning herself to an extended stay in the tree. Days, maybe. 'Where on earth is Sango?' she bemoaned silently. Sango would be able to help her.

For three days, she had been tailed by two persistent inuyoukai shadows that had rubbed, groped grabbed and sniffed her, despite the fact that she not only liberally doused herself in Zen, she didn't hesitate to turn it on them when they got too frisky – which was more often than not. Why Inuyasha was not constantly hacking at Sesshomaru with Tetsusaiga for touching her and why Sesshomaru was even touching her in the first place was a complete mystery, but one she was not given much time to ponder while dodging wandering hands. Her only clue to the brothers' strange behavior was a repetitive thought that surfaced in the cesspool the taiyoukai called a brain: something about winning and the hanyou losing. But what? Did she even want to know?

The only thing that would definitely be lost in this whole fiasco was Kagome's mind. One horny dog demon she could handle…well, not really… but two? Her temper had long since run out and her virginity had suddenly become something to protect like gold. She may have once been eager to shed the mantle of old-fashioned purity, but that had been before the tag-team assault by the brothers. So, here she sat, treed like a cat, with a clear view of anyone approaching her from almost any angle, perfume in her pocket and ready to deploy at a moment's notice.

Boy, did they piss her off.

That wasn't to say that she was any less hormonal and tempted (especially when Sesshomaru flicked the end of his Mokomoko-sama in her direction), but she'd follow Kikyou into hell before she'd let them seduce her before she was good and ready! And she may very well have been ready if only one had tried a little romance. Butt sniffing did not count.

Inuyasha was right out, anyway: he loved Kikyou. No matter how much she may have once loved the hanyou, she would not complicate or tarnish that love by being the "other woman". Never before had she felt so cheap and used than now: she was a consolation prize of sorts because something wasn't quite working out with Kikyou. And how dare Inuyasha pursue her when he still belonged to Kikyou! Two-timing jerk!

"Osuwari!"

"Gah!" Inuyasha cried as he unexpectedly hit the dirt.

"Wow, Inuyasha, what did you do? You were just sitting there!" Shippo's voice floated up from below.

"How should I know? Crazy bitch."

"Osuwari."

Inuyasha didn't curse that time, either inured to having his face planted into the ground or expecting it, or both.

Shippo sighed heavily, and then called up into the tree, "Um, Kagome? Could I talk to you?"

Leaning over, she looked down at her kit, worried by the hesitancy and shyness in his normally confident voice. Smiling reassuringly, she said, "Sure, Shippo. Would you like to come up?"

"Actually," the kit glanced askance at the hanyou as he fiddled with the hem of his jacket, "I was hoping we could talk somewhere private."

"Good luck with that," she scoffed to herself but swung out of the tree anyway, one hand awkwardly pressed to her bottom in case a stray breeze, or something less benign, tried to lift it. Before her toes had touched the ground, Inuyasha was already on his feet, looking like he had every intention of following. "You're not invited," she told the hanyou, patting the pocket that held her new weapon.

"But-"

"I'm serious! Don't follow, or else."

Inuyasha cringed but continued to protest, "Sesshomaru could be anywhere out there. I ain't gonna-"

"I can take care of myself!" she snapped, frustration and anger percolating through her blood to pop behind her eyes. "When is Sango going to be back? Didn't you say that the swarm was nearly destroyed?"

"It was!" he yelled defensively. "Weak humans must be more pathetic than I thought."

"Osuwari," she replied and Inuyasha connected with the dirt with a resigned "oomph."

"Come on, Shippo, let's go talk," she caught the kit when he leapt into her arms.

"Are you worried about Sango and the others?" he asked as they passed out of the village gates and into the forest.

"Yeah, a bit. They should be back by now. I wonder what's keeping them?" She shrugged and sighed, comforted by Shippo's pat on her shoulder. "I do know that when she comes home, I'm going to clobber two dog demons with Hiraikotsu."

"Oh," Shippo said and Kagome could almost see a bulb light up over his head. "Then that means…"

"Means what?" Kagome settled on a sunny boulder and moved the kit to her lap where she gave him her full attention.

"So you don't like all the attention from Inuyasha and Sesshomaru?"

Kagome blinked and gave him an incredulous look. "Whatever gave you the impression that I liked being groped?"

"Well, Miroku groped Sango and she married him-"

"She also hit him a lot, too."

"-and whenever Sesshomaru grabs you, your eyes get all sparkly-"

"They do not!"

Shippo raised a disbelieving eyebrow, something she was positive she'd seen Sesshomaru do a few times. "So I thought that was how you, you know…"

"I don't think I do, Shippo," she prompted, but in truth, she was pretty sure that she did.

Squirming in her lap, Shippo rubbed his nose. "Well, I thought that was how you…told girls that you…ahem," he coughed into his paw and rubbed his nose again.

"Liked them?" Kagome finished for him. Shippo nodded and blushed to the roots of his red hair. "You didn't grope Rin, did you?" He nodded again miserably. "What did she do?"

"She stuffed a crayon up my nose," he mumbled, rubbing the abused appendage with a tiny, clawed finger.

Kagome tried not to laugh, she really did. Unfortunately, the giggle burst out of her, bypassing her mouth, which was clamped shut, and spewed out her nose in a noisy snort. She tried to blow if off as a sneeze, but Shippo would have none of it. Crossing his arms over his chest, he lifted his nose into the air and did his best Inuyasha-pout impression, which did nothing to improve Kagome's giggle fit.

"It hurt, you know."

Blinking back tears and hunching her shoulders to keep them from shaking, Kagome spoke when she thought her voice wouldn't crack, "I'm sure it did, Shippo. Maybe you should try giving her flowers, next time, or draw a picture for her."

"I still have the crayon," he said hopefully.

Her face was going to break, she just knew it, but she was _not _going to laugh in the face of childhood love. Only her indomitable will, the one that had kept her from strangling Inuyasha all of these years, and the dear, trusting eyes of her kit prevented her from exploding into peals of undignified, helpless laughter. "Then I think a picture would be perfect."

Sesshomaru stood at a polite distance behind the trunk of a massive pine tree and gave the bouquet in his hand a confident smirk. Flowers, candlelight, and soft music, she had said. Soft music wasn't readily available and candlelight would come later, so this bouquet that Rin had collected would be the perfect place to start. After getting nowhere with the miko for three days, he realized that a change of strategy might be required to achieve his ultimate goal: triumph over his half-brother and countless nights of unbridled, passionate sex with the little miko. If she were always this fiery, then the bedsport promised to be…intense.

Inuyasha's mother had been a sweet, demure little thing that had been swept away by his advances and had melted under his touch. It had almost been too easy, but fun, nevertheless. Kagome was proving to be quite the challenge and where she should have opened her legs and begged him to take her after her taste of his Mokomoko-sama, instead, she sprayed him with perfume. Infuriating, clever bitch. However, no female could hold out forever: he was a master of the art of seduction. It had been a long time since his skills had been truly tested. The more she resisted, the more excited he became and the greater his desire to win her.

He shifted anxiously, impatient for this little heart-to-heart between the kit and the miko to be over. It was his turn to have her attention. He had missed most of their conversation but doubted that any courtship intended by the kit could be taken seriously. Where was Jaken, anyway, and why wasn't he keeping the pups from underfoot?

"So what made you change your mind?" he heard Kagome's soft, lilting voice float on the breeze and imagined that same voice speaking to him through damp, tousled hair and scattered cushions.

"Sesshomaru doesn't seem to be an enemy anymore, so I just thought…"

What did he, Sesshomaru, have to do with the kitsune's puppy love? Unless, after witnessing Inuyasha's bumbling pursuit of a dead woman, the boy had developed a taste for men? 'This Sesshomaru _is_ a sexy beast.'

However, the kit's voice had no place in his fantasy, so he banished it, debating on the best way to get the kit out of his hair. He settled on a subsonic growl that any young youkai would recognize as a cue to make himself scarce.

"What is it, Shippo?"

"Uhhh…I'm gonna go work on that picture."

Sesshomaru heard a rustling that he recognized as the miko getting to her feet.

"I'll walk you back to the village, then."

Growling again, he let Shippo know that dawdling was not to be tolerated.

"That's okay, Kagome! I'll be fine!" the kit shot past the taiyoukai, his red tail fluffed like a bottlebrush and standing straight out behind him.

"Shippo, wait!" Kagome called after him, her human feet making a racket in the carpet of pine needles. Suddenly, she stopped running and let loose an exasperated sigh and a quiet, human growl.

'She knows I'm here,' he realized. 'Who is this miko, Kagome?' Deciding that the best course of action would not involve angering her further, he stepped from behind his tree and into her path. Already, her eyes were snapping with irritation and her hand was in the pocket that held that noxious perfume.

"That will not be necessary," he reassured her quickly and handed her the bouquet of flowers. 'This will keep her hands busy. Maybe I should have had Rin make a chain of them: they would complement the comely bluish highlights in her hair.'

Kagome blinked several times before taking them, her cheeks pinking and her brown eyes softening as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ears, then took the bunch of flowers. Artfully arranged lavender and buttery-yellow orchid-like blooms were surrounded by long, elegantly striped leaves and held together by a length of purple silk cording. Never, in her entire life, had she ever received such a lovely bouquet. The gift and the comment about her hair was more than enough to overlook the fact that the flowers were called "toad lilies". "Wow, um, thank you," she mumbled.

'_Then she does like flowers. I will fill our chamber with them and pleasure her on a bed of rose petals.'_

'That was almost romantic, in a perverted kind of way,' she thought wistfully. 'And he's paying attention to what I like. How sweet.' He took a step toward her and she braced herself for dodging an attempt on her ass but was pleasantly surprised to find her arm wrapped around his.

"You will walk with me."

'Would it kill him to ask?' she grumped half-heartedly to herself. 'Oh well, at least he's trying.' Feigning more reluctance than she actually felt, she batted her eyelashes and shrugged one shoulder. "I suppose."

'She is no miko; she is a vixen in disguise,' he thought as he took a peek down the front of her strange, low-cut, strappy shirt. Between her breasts, it left an empty valley that was just begging for his hand to enter and cup one perky mound. But later…he did not want to get doused with that foul scent again. Now, to be covered in _her_ scent and the odors of sweat and sex was an entirely different matter.

He glanced down at her, not surprised to see a blush staining her cheeks but curious as to its source. How could such a feisty, sexy little thing be so shy that a simple walk would cause her such discomposure? He had chosen to take her on a walk because Izayoi had enjoyed them, and they seemed to fit in the category of "date", though Izayoi and Kagome were nothing alike. Whereas Izayoi had taken him to bed in two days, Kagome had lasted, what, five and counting? And he hadn't had to put forth near the effort. Yes, the little miko was much more vivacious and intelligent than the pretty princess - better in every way. Wouldn't the old dog be jealous?

The woman beside him gasped and stumbled, catching herself on his arm, which pleased him immensely.

"Are you ill, miko?" he asked as his eyes were drawn to a tacky blue ring on her finger. It had "dog" written in raised kanji on the top and it irritated him that Inuyasha was giving her jewelry, ugly as it was. Though he had numberless baubles more precious and beautiful than that piece of crap, they were all safely ensconced in his treasury and he would have to leave her alone with that mongrel to get them. The pup must have brought it with him and had gotten it at the same place as the other white one. But the material of the rings was so odd-

"I'm fine," she quickly assured him, pulling her hand from his arm and covering the ring with her other hand. He took that moment to place his hand on her waist, and then nodded, urging her forward with the pressure of his arm.

The sound of swiftly running water reached his ears as the composition of the forest gradually began to change from tall, sparsely spaced conifers and thin undergrowth to more densely growing deciduous trees crowded by thin saplings and tender, green ferns. Cicadas sang in strident, whirring chorus against the counterpoint of Kagome's crunching footsteps. Relaxed and at ease with his companion, he was almost able to forget the purpose of his presence in this village and simply be a male escorting a female on a sultry summer afternoon. It was a pleasant thought and he let his eyes drift slightly closed as he caught the scent of her clean hair mingling with the spice of pine, ripening nuts and fresh water.

The forest opened up to the bank of the river, a short verge with a jagged, sheer, three-foot drop to the surface of the water. Wild and tumbling over exposed boulders, the stream flowed much more swiftly than at Kagome's favorite sunbathing spot. Holding her steady as she climbed over a fallen log, Sesshomaru appreciated the way her skirt flipped up in back, showing an expanse of lightly tanned, toned thigh. As if in response to his thoughts, she clutched at the hem of her skirt and tugged it down, shooting him a nasty look.

'He can go from dreamy to lecherous in a single second,' Kagome grumbled to herself as she made sure that her skirt covered everything that it should with a final pull at the back. Truth be told, she had enjoyed the stroll as much as he did, until he'd ogled her legs. Just the same, she supposed it was a good thing that the guy who was interested in her was turned on by everything she did. But why was the stoic demon lord, infamous for despising her race, suddenly so keen to get her in bed?

And what was that about Inuyasha's mother, Princess Izayoi? Though she hated being compared to other women, even in a favorable light, the history behind his silent musings was simply too intriguing for words. Did Inuyasha know that his brother had slept with his mother? Was Inuyasha truly Sesshomaru's brother? Oh, the possibilities…

She stifled a conspiratorial giggle behind her hand and did a goofy Kagome-dance in place, shimmying her shoulders and wiggling her hips to her own happy rhythm.

"Something pleases you?"

The question intruded into her thoughts and she stopped dancing with an embarrassed flush, the twinkle in his golden eyes more amused then lascivious, until:

'_I shall have her dance for me again wearing nothing but my own sash.'_

Distracted by a mental image of an unclothed Sesshomaru wrapped up in his sash like an early birthday present, she babbled, "Oh, I was just thinking…how much I liked this river." She caught an impression of disappointment in the slight thinning of his lips before he turned his head to stare at the water. 'You could have thought of something better than that, dummy.' She struggled to recover, "I mean, thank you for bringing me here."

The water rushed past them, crashing and splashing as they stood on the bank in silence. A glint of silver flashed in the depths of the stream and Kagome was forcibly reminded of the blank ring that she had carelessly thrown into it. Several times, she had returned to its banks to search for the little piece of white plastic, even traveled downstream a bit to see if it had washed up, but to no avail. It had vanished.

Pulling her thoughts back to the present, she regarded the profile of the demon next to her. An aquiline nose, high cheekbones, and a tapered jaw lent him an effeminate beauty that she was sure aided him in his perverted escapades. It was the magenta stripes that started at the base of his elven ears to slash across his cheeks to which her eyes kept wandering: so fierce and mysterious. And she could positively kiss that little blue crescent moon…

"Sesshomaru?" she said before she even knew it had slipped out. He turned toward her, the cool fire in his eyes somewhat daunting, but now that she'd started, she wasn't going to back down. "Why are you here?"

His lips suddenly distracted her: pale, full, and beautifully shaped. Entranced, she waited for them to stir, pressing her own together in remembrance of their silkiness. Her mouth was suddenly parched and the air just a little too heavy to breath, a warm weight pressing on her chest as her lungs struggled to expand. She licked her lips and watched as his moved to form words that did not reach her ears. If only he weren't quite so tall, then she could stand on her toes to reach them…

'He's bending down,' she noted in wonder as he lowered his head, his burnished bangs lifting from his forehead to dance in the gentle breeze. 'Should I kiss him? I really want to but he's been so aggravating these past days.' He was saying something again but she paid it no mind, forgetting that she had asked him a question in the first place. 'Then again, he's being really sweet now and maybe I should reward good behavior…'

He cocked his head and a quizzical light flickered at the backs of his eyes, giving them a playful sparkle that launched a bevy of butterflies from a hidden corner of her stomach. Her blood became a quiet roar in her ears, drowning out everything but her own fascination of the man before her. Each quiver of his eyelashes and quirk of his mouth, the dappling of the summer sun in his hair and the contrast of his crests against the pale skin of his face, the countless tiny creases in his lips opened mystery upon mystery that she was compelled to solve.

Placing a hand on his un-armored chest, she rose to her tiptoes, tilting her head and parting her lips to fully receive him, her eyes fluttering closed. The colorful bunch of flowers in her hand dropped slowly to her side to rest against her thigh, the ends of the silk cord tickling her calf. Relentless, her pulse thrummed steadily faster as it beat down any lingering doubts and hesitations, leaving only one giddy thought to spin through her head, 'I really, really want to kiss him…'

A/N: Ha ha! Yes, I am leaving you there. You may thank my beta for that idea – she is absolutely brilliant. And that little cliffy is dedicated the Chaos-and-Serenity, who not only leaves fantastic reviews, she also ends her chapters on evil little precipices that make one fall out of chair.


	9. Two Kisses

Edited by thymecat.

A/N: Yes, I know I was mean/evil/cruel with that last chapter. Hope this extra-long one helps to make up for it. Izzyco – a conversation we once had inspired something in this chapter. I'm sure you'll recognize it.

Thank you to all of my wonderful reviewers! You guys are the best!

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Xxx…Previously…xxX

Placing a hand on his un-armored chest, she rose to her tiptoes, tilting her head and parting her lips to fully receive him, her eyes fluttering closed. The colorful bunch of flowers in her hand dropped slowly to her side to rest against her thigh, the ends of the silk cord tickling her calf. Relentless, her pulse thrummed steadily faster as it beat down any lingering doubts and hesitations, leaving only one giddy thought to spin through her head, 'I really, really want to kiss him…'

Chapter 9 – Two Kisses

His breath fanned her face as he licked the corner of her mouth and she tapped the tip of her tongue against his just before sealing their lips. As he tangled his claws in her hair, the sharp scrape against her scalp raced down her spine in delicious little shivers, emboldening her to enter his mouth and explore his curved fangs, the rough surface of his tongue, the slightly acidic taste of saliva not her own and undoubtedly bearing trace amounts of poison. Restless and searching, her fingers slid along his silk collars in a quest all their own.

Prickly trails tickled across her skin as his claws glided over her back, snagging in the cotton of her dress. She shivered as her fingers found naked flesh of his chest and his claws tightened momentarily, the sharp tips piercing the thin fabric of her dress and puncturing her skin like needles tipped with fire. Moaning, she curled her fingers and drew her nails down the hard muscles of his chest to his chiseled stomach as she pressed their lower bodies together. His tongue filled her mouth, the kiss suddenly raw and hungry as he scraped his fangs over her lips and cupped one firm cheek in his claws, dragging her hips against him with such force that she lifted a leg, wrapping it around one of his calves to steady herself.

Her head buzzed with a high-pitched whine, her lips slightly numb where his teeth had nicked them, and the hard length pressing against her belly only encouraged her to grind against it. Aching and hot, her body thrummed with a potent, organic need. She groaned as his hand slid down the back of her thigh, the clawed fingers clenching closer to the center of her pain, and she pushed back with her tongue, taking his mouth by force as if trying to devour him to satisfy her newfound greed.

He was spiraling down into the most primal urges of his youkai self, the debonair, aloof charm that he used to make his conquests evaporating in the blaze of her passion. Power and desire radiated from her in waves, but he was too lost to gloat. Instead, he sought to draw out more, pulling her leg to his hip and bending his knees to surge against the dark heat the called to him. She gasped against his mouth, rolling her hips to blot the distended crotch of his pants with pungent juices, and he was nearly undone. Hard and beading with his own fertile liquid, he matched her movements until he felt her wetness against his taut skin.

"Talking to Shippo, my ass!"

Inuyasha's shout broke through the haze of Kagome's lust and her body became ridged with shock and embarrassment, her skin flushed with high color and her breath coming in short, rasping pants. Sesshomaru jolted back to himself with a mental lurch and simply closed his lips around her stilled tongue, sucking slightly before he released her with a final thrust against the soaked crotch of her panties. He turned to his brother, his hand gripping her thigh. One of her hands was still pressed against ridges of his abdomen between the parted layers of his kimono, the other holding the bouquet limp at her side.

"You are intruding," Sesshomaru drawled, though the narrowing of his rouged eyes indicated irritation rather than his usual boredom or indifference. The hanyou stood growling on the other side of the river, his ears lying back against his head and his fist clenching around the hilt of Tetsusaiga. Sending a meaningful glance at the sword, Sesshomaru added, "Even a half-breed such as yourself knows the rules."

Forcing his hand away from his sword and into a tightly clenched ball, Inuyasha bared his fangs. Of course he knew the rules, such as they were. This was a contest to win a woman through seduction, not by beating the crap out of your opponent. Damn it all. "I should've kicked your ass out of this village the moment I smelled your stench."

"Your attempt would have been amusing, if futile. Do you renege?"

Still held fast in a compromising position, Kagome tried to tug herself away and was only mildly relieved when she succeeded. Shaking and unsatisfied, she tried to catch her breath and stamp out the disappointment and frustration flooding her body that he had not filled her to the brim and driven the fire out of her blood. She couldn't help but feel ashamed that Inuyasha had caught her…kissing…Sesshomaru, especially when she had initiated it. Not to mention the fact that she was doing some seriously heavy petting with a demon with whom she was furious.

Coming to terms with both brothers pursuing her, yet not shedding blood, was difficult enough, but purging herself of those final dregs of guilt for moving her interest from Inuyasha to someone else was proving to be strenuous. The only thing that really helped her was the hanyou's feelings. Not once had she sensed the kind of love he felt for Kikyou: affection, jealousy, lust, yes, but not that pure, untainted love.

'And what was that about backing out?' she wondered, latching onto the conversation in order to distract herself from the throbbing between her legs and the slightly bitter, tingly taste of him on her tongue.

"Hell, no!" Inuyasha shouted, furious with himself for letting Kagome out of his sight.

Apparently, the girl had worse taste than he thought if she could stand kissing that bastard. Shittier still was the fact that he'd gotten a good look at that kiss, and even though it had involved his half-brother and made his blood boil with anger, jealousy and disgust, he'd felt his prick stir to life. Kikyou had never kissed him like that. He hadn't known one _could_ be kissed like that, but Kagome did and it got him wondering what else his friend knew. And whether she would do it with Kikyou while he watched? Somehow, he doubted it, but the fantasy was doing amazing things below the belt.

His original tactics to win the miko had been to prevent his brother from pulling his mojo shit on Kagome, and then remind her that the sun rose and set on himself. The details of that venture had remained a bit fuzzy in his mind, but he'd been confident that it would work itself out. Strategy just wasn't his thing.

Now, he realized that he had to figure out what she meant by atmosphere and mood, and fast. Kagome had been nothing but furious with him since he'd arrived, something he hadn't expected when making that fucking bet. Unfortunately, he hadn't a clue how to get off of her shit list and into her panties. At least that damn pervert, Miroku, was almost back; he could smell the group of exterminators approaching and damn, did they need baths. If he had to stoop to ask Miroku for advice, then so be it. He would weather the ridicule.

"What's going on, guys?" Kagome interrupted the bickering brothers. They were acting out of character, having not physically whaled on each other once, and it was confusing and more than a little irritating.

"Stay out of this Kagome, it's demon stuff. It don't concern you," snapped Inuyasha.

"What!" Did she just hear correctly? They were fighting over her and it didn't concern her? What nonsense was this? Anger, potent and fierce, began to seep into her brain. Her fist tightened around the bouquet, bruising the fragile stems. "Inuyasha…"

Sesshomaru smirked ever so slightly, knowing exactly what that warning tone meant. Apparently, so did Inuyasha. "Ah, shit," Inuyasha muttered under his breath.

"I've had enough of this…this!" Kagome shouted, to the brothers' surprise, and waved her hands expansively. "I'm sick of it!"

"Maybe you shoulda thought of that before you started sucking face with fuckhead over there!"

"Stop it! Just stop it! Inuyasha, you should be ashamed of yourself! You love Kikyou, I know you do, and yet here you are harassing me! This is just like when Kouga still used to drop by. You don't want me but you don't want anyone else to want me, either."

"But why are you suddenly fawning over my brother, Kagome? Because you thought you couldn't have me?"

"OSUWARI!" Kagome screamed, stamping her foot and only narrowly missed trodding on Sesshomaru's boot. Inuyasha hit the grass at the edge of the riverbank with a muffled thump. "OSUWARI! OSUWARI! OSUWARI!"

Groaning as clods of dirt broke off the inside of the short cliff and fell into the water, the bank shuddered and collapsed, sending a swath of grass and a pissy hanyou plunging into the river.

"Kagome, you-" gurgle, gurgle, "-fucking-" splash, gurgle, "-aah!" Inuyasha suddenly disappeared in a flailing, soggy mess of silver and red, having found a small waterfall.

"And you!" she whirled on the taiyoukai and prodded him in the chest, trying to ignore the little quiver in her belly at the sight of his sculpted, white flesh. "You haven't given me a passing glance all these years and suddenly you're all over me? What gives?"

The taiyoukai gazed down at her impassively, silently, her tirade washing over and around him but leaving no trace of its presence other than the tiny voice of his thoughts as he wrapped his hand around her finger and gave it a gentle squeeze.

'_You're wrong, little miko. I have watched you from afar since our first meeting. Though, usually I am the one to do the poking. '_

Kagome paused her rant as that thought began to filter into her brain and a warm tingle began in the center of her chest, only to be extinguished by the final words. 'That pervert! More like "impale" than "poke" by the feel of things.'

Gasping, her eyes widening as her cheeks heated. 'I did not just think that! And I know what _it_ feels like! Gyah, his perversion is contagious!' She felt the blush creep down her face and into her neck and watched as his bright eyes followed the spreading crimson. 'Stop blushing, already!'

'_How far down does that blush go?'_ He leaned forward slightly and she was absolutely positive that he was looking down her shirt…again.

Throwing up her hands, she whirled around. "Ooooh! Impossible dogs! Leave me alone, both of you!"

Sesshomaru watched her stomp back into the forest, momentarily forgetting to watch her skirt ride up in the back as the theft of her energizing presence left an empty, hollow vacuum in her wake. He'd been enjoying their brief interlude up until the hanyou's arrival, perhaps more than he should have. One should never get attached to their conquests; it was a cardinal rule of womanizing.

Annoyed and needing to take it out on something, he gathered a cloud of youki beneath his feet and flew downstream to where his half-brother was pulling himself out of the water. Setting down on the smooth rocks that paved the shore, he fixed the boy with a cold, superior glare.

"Dear brother, if that is how you charm women, then you will remain a virgin until I kill you."

XxxxxxxX

Sango groaned as she sank into the cool stream, pausing with a hiss as the water hit an open cut on her side, and then finished lowering her body until she was submerged from the neck down. Sighing, she closed her eyes and let her head loll back against a boulder. "Man, did I need this."

Snickering behind her hand, Kagome had to agree.

When the exhausted, ragtag team of youkai exterminators had puffed and panted their way into the village, Kagome had barely recognized them. Sango's lustrous, brown hair had been cut to a short bob, Miroku had a gash running across his forehead that had bled profusely, caking his face in a red, cracking mask, and Akago hadn't said a nasty word to anyone. The lot of them had smelled so foul that she'd shoed them back out of the village and to a shallow part of the river to rinse off before letting them into the main house. This bath was probably Sango's third of the day.

"Lord Sesshomaru had better cough up a bonus," Sango grumbled as she let her arms float to the surface of the water. "That wasn't your typical beetle swarm."

Kagome poured a generous puddle of body wash into her plastic poof and set the bottle aside, squishing the poof in her hands to build up lather. "Don't tell me a bunch of beetles gave _you_ trouble," she scoffed lightly.

Akago snorted as she tried to untangle her hair with her fingers. "They didn't, at first. We'd busted almost all of their shells, but then…" she shrugged, her fingers still caught in her hair, "it just got weird."

"Weird is an understatement," Sango added. "It was as if…I don't know, they could predict our movements."

"Oh," Kagome said, a sudden leaden feeling of dread settling in the pit of her stomach. It had to be impossible, right? What were the chances? A gazillion to one? "Sounds weird, alright. But you were able to defeat them?" she finished hopefully.

Pulling her fingers out of her hair with a painful grunt, Akago huffed, "Of course we were, no thanks to that damn hanyou. He ran off because of you."

"No," Sango interjected, "he ran off because of your damn mouth, Akago. If you hadn't made that comment about Lord Sesshomaru, then he might have stayed to finish the job."

"Which comment?" the question popped out of Kagome's mouth too quickly for her to cork it.

Akago sneered, her scar puckering across her face, though the effect was ruined when her fingers became embroiled in a particularly stubborn knot. "Have your leg humped, lately?" she asked in lieu of a real answer.

"Wh-what? No!" Kagome tripped over her own tongue in her haste to deny it. And it was the truth: Sesshomaru had not humped her _leg_, exactly.

Sango pinched the bridge of her nose and produced a passable growl. "Shut it, apprentice. I'm not in the mood." Releasing a sigh in a gust of breath, she continued where she had left off, "But I'm not convinced that we got all of them. Something tells me…" she sighed, staring up at the distant stars with a preoccupied frown. "But it's probably nothing."

The worry came crashing back at the reminder of her carelessness and possible culpability. Kagome fiddled with the cord attached to the poof, feeling horrible. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, apologizing for more than just distracting Inuyasha from the fight.

"It wasn't your fault, Kagome," Sango gave her that familiar, sympathetic smile that Kagome so despised. "You shouldn't try to blame yourself for Inuyasha's actions."

'But it might _be_ my fault,' she thought as she stared blankly at the ball of plastic mesh in her hands. 'This is bad. I have to tell her about the blank ring…but I better wait until Akago goes away,' Kagome peeked at the apprentice demon slayer through her lashes, surprised to see her staring at Sango with something akin to hero worship as she jerked her fingers through her hair. In a moment of pity that she would probably regret later, Kagome handed her the bottle of detangler. Akago gave the bottle a suspicious glare and was about to wave it away when Kagome harrumphed, "Oh, just take it. Not everyone is out to get you."

"So, Kagome," Sango interjected before another squabble could break out, "how have you fared? Did Lord Sesshomaru behave himself?"

Kagome choked and almost dropped the bottle of detangler in the water as Akago handed it back to her. "Well, um, actually, he-"

"If he hurt you, I'll kill him," the snide teasing dropped out of Akago's voice and she ceased combing through her now easier to manage hair to level a glare at Kagome.

"No, no, it wasn't like that!" Kagome was hasty to correct her. 'And here I thought she didn't like me. Maybe she just looks for an excuse to fight to hide her true feelings. Kinda like Inuyasha,' she thought with an uncharitable, mental giggle.

Sango sat up and fixed her friend with a queer, searching look. "Kagome? It wasn't like what?"

Giving herself time to think, Kagome ducked under the water. Unfortunately, the misshapen, wavering forms of her friends inspired no more acceptable answers than their questioning faces. Finally out of breath, she resurfaced and shook her wet bangs out of her eyes. With little surprise, she found Sango still staring at her, waiting for an answer that she preferred not to give in front of Akago, who would definitely have some choice things to say.

"It wasn't like what?" Sango repeated, a bit more emphatically.

"Well, kinda it was, maybe," she evaded as she drew circles in the surface of the water with her index fingers.

Akago snorted, "Didn't you see the way that youkai was eyeing her?"

"Who, Lord Sesshomaru?" Sango asked incredulously, the tone of her voice implying that her apprentice might have a screw loose.

"Yeah," Kagome stepped in before Akago could say anything derogatory. If the story were going to come out, then at least it would be her version that hit the press first. "He's been sort of…amorous, lately."

"Amorous?"

"I knew it," Akago muttered. "I'm going to cut off his-"

"No! We haven't done much more than kiss!" protested Kagome as she frantically waved her hands in front of her.

"KISS?" Sango repeated, looking flabbergasted.

Kagome couldn't help herself. The shocked, bug-eyed expression of her best girlfriend was simply too much to resist. "He's a great kisser," she added, also not being able to help the blush or silly grin that spread across her face.

"Dog slobber," Akago spat, frowning and crossing her arms over her chest. "And who knows where his nose has been."

As she barely suppressed a snicker, the increasingly vocal naughty voice in the back of Kagome's mind commented, 'Oh, I bet I do…'

"Ka_GO_me!" Sango hollered, and then fell backward into the water. She resurfaced with a sputter. "What about Inuyasha?"

"Now, that's the weird thing…"

XxxxxxX

"You did WHAT?" Miroku stared at his hanyou friend in utter, abject astonishment over the light of the small cooking fire. "Are you a complete imbecile?"

"Hey! There's no need to be calling names, here!"

"Inuyasha, do you realize what Kagome will do to you when she finds out?"

"…she won't sleep with my brother?"

"To YOU, baka! You can kiss that straight spine goodbye!"

"But Sesshomaru-"

"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe she doesn't want you anymore? That because you chose Kikyou, she has moved on?"

"But-"

"Damn it, Inuyasha, I knew you were dense, but this…"

"So you ain't gonna help me, is that it? Let Sesshomaru fuck her and toss her away like he does all his other women? Or worse yet, _keep_ her?"

"What concerns you more: winning or Kagome's feelings?" the monk countered. Inuyasha just looked baffled, his golden eyes wide and his mouth slightly agape.

Miroku sighed, rubbing his once-cursed hand over his face. This was a tough situation, perhaps one of the most awkward ones he'd endured in the recent past. While he didn't wholly approve of Sesshomaru courting…or whatever…Kagome, he had seen the girl's heart break so many times over the hanyou sitting across from him that he couldn't say he disliked the idea of her finding a new love interest. Some hentai radar told him that Sesshomaru's attention to Kagome extended well beyond a simple wager. However, he couldn't leave Inuyasha in the proverbial ditch, either: he was hopeless when it came to women.

"I'll give you some tips on how to woo the female species, but I'll have no part in this bet you made with your brother. Do you hear me? You dug your own grave, baka."

"Keh. Whatever."

"Now, damage control first. Have you done anything to anger her, lately?"

XxxxxxX

Sango sighed heavily and pressed her thumb and forefinger to her eyeballs, tightly scrunching the lids. With another sigh and a roll of her neck, the bones popping loudly over the singing of the crickets, she opened her eyes and regarded her best friend with a serious, almost regretful look. "Demons aren't humans."

"Well duh, Sango," Kagome replied, trying to bring some lightness back into the conversation.

"Duh nothing, Kagome. Some of them may look human, but they've got their own traditions, code of ethics, societal norms," she waved her hands vaguely as she trailed off.

Kagome raised suspicious eyebrows, "Have you been reading my text books?"

"What I'm trying to say," Sango continued, ignoring Kagome's question, "is that what may seem like a fling to you may be something completely different to Inuyasha, and especially to Sesshomaru."

"I'm pretty sure neither of them want to marry me," Kagome muttered sarcastically as she crossed her arms over her chest. That's what this was about, wasn't it? Sango wanted her to get married, not just experiment. Whatever happened to shopping around?

Sango countered angrily, "Have you ever seen a human-demon relationship that actually worked?"

That question made Kagome pause. Come to think of it, no, she hadn't. She'd met several hanyou who had come from single parent homes, their fathers having been killed for dabbling with a mortal. Hoshiomi and Sukiomi, an ill-fated priestess and demon, never even made it to the baby-making stage of their relationship. But she wasn't looking for a long-term relationship, was she? She just wanted a little romance in her life! "Yeah, well-"

"You're in love with that dog," Akago broke in accusingly, her voice thick with revulsion. Truth be told, Kagome had almost forgotten that she was there.

"Ahaha," Kagome laughed nervously. In lust, maybe, but she'd learned her lesson when it came to loving dog demons. "Don't be silly. I would never-"

Sango groaned and dropped her head in her hands. "Kagome, you are far too trusting for your own good."

"I know what I'm doing," Kagome defended herself. And she did, to a certain degree. She also knew that what she was doing was careless, stupid, and could potentially get her in a butt-load of trouble, but at least she wasn't deluding herself!

Akago snorted and rose out of the water, reaching for the drying sheet she'd left on a near-by boulder. "The hell you do, but when you're along and birthing a litter of puppies, don't say I didn't warn you."

Sango and Kagome watched as she strode out of sight, the hem of her thin yukata fluttering about her legs. Sighing, Sango turned to Kagome and propped her elbow on the boulder, chin in her hand. "She's right, you know."

"Puppies?" Kagome squealed, trying not to surrender to a fit of giggles.

"No! For kami's sake, Kagome!"

"I can handle him," Kagome stated with more confidence than she actually felt, raising her chin defiantly.

Sango rolled her eyes and groaned.

XxxxxxX

"I'm telling you, Inuyasha, if you want to have any chance, whatsoever, of winning Kagome, then you _must_ apologize to her," Miroku felt like a wheel in a mud pit, spinning and spinning in place but never getting anywhere. Kagome deserved an apology from Inuyasha and if nothing else good came from this idiot game, then that would. 'But what is so terrible about apologizing to one's friend?' he had to wonder as dark clouds gathered around the hanyou's silver ears and a storm brewed behind his eyes.

"For what? I ain't apologizing," Inuyasha repeated for the umpteenth time.

"It doesn't matter!" Miroku exploded impiously. "Anything! Everything! Women just like to hear it!"

"Feh. Forget it."

"Which is exactly why you have yet to become a man," gesturing at the hanyou with a flourish, the monk sat back smugly and watched as his point sank slowly into Inuyasha's thick skull.

"…damn it."

"You have to give a little to get…a little," Miroku explained with an inward cringe. 'I'm a bad man. A very bad man.'

"Get a little what?" Inuyasha asked, his ears rotating to train on the monk and his golden eyes widening as he leaned forward slightly.

Miroku blinked. 'He can't be serious,' he thought, and then corrected himself when the hanyou cocked his head curiously. "Ah…the pleasures of a woman's company, of course."

Inuyasha's face scrunched as he leaned back in his seat, "I don't want _company_, I want _pu_-"

Snatching his staff from its resting place against the wall, Miroku smacked him over the head. "My money is on Sesshomaru."

XxxxxxX

Sniffing the noontime breeze, Inuyasha located the scent of Kagome's shampoo and stomped in that direction, his brain churning with reluctance and annoyance. Why did he have to apologize, anyway? Kagome always forgave him, eventually, and it wasn't like he'd done anything wrong. The girl was often upset about stupid shit. If anything, she should apologize to him for sitting him, spraying him with chemical scents, and making out with his bastard brother.

He paused his slow trudge to where Kagome sat at the base of a tall tree, reading some book or whatnot. As he watched, a sensuous smile stretched her lips and her heart rate quickened. She shifted against the trunk, her skirt riding up to reveal the lines of her thighs as they angled toward her hidden woman's mystery. Groaning in appreciation, he adjusted the front of his hakama to give his dick a little room to grow.

Then again, maybe apologizing wasn't such a bad idea. Miroku had insisted that women loved a contrite man and damn, did he need some loving. Maybe he could take her piggyback somewhere, just to get a preview of that sweet spot as it pressed against his back. 'It's my turn,' he thought irritably. 'That fucker has had way too many feels.'

Resuming his march, peeling his eyes away from the crease where her breasts pressed together, Inuyasha stopped at a fairly safe distance, just in case she decided to whip out her stench bottle. Clearing his throat, he hoped that she might start the conversation and save him from apologizing, after all.

"Yes, Inuyasha," she said without looking up from her book, frost edging her words. He hadn't heard that particular tone of voice since the last time he'd left her to visit Kikyou. Damn. At least it felt familiar.

With a grunt, he sat next to her. He sighed, "Kagome…" When she remained silent, he decided to take the plunge. "I'm sorry," he muttered quickly, his ears flattening against his hair with a twitch.

"For what?" she asked coolly, finally putting her book aside.

This wasn't a question he wanted to answer. However, for the sake of his hard-on, he gave it a go. "Keh. Stuff," was his eloquent reply.

Kagome breathed a long-suffering sigh from the soles of her feet. "What's the point of apologizing if you don't know why?"

He _did_ know why, but telling her: "because I want to screw you before my brother does" just wouldn't fly. Though now that he looked back on the last few days…weeks…okay, years, he might have been a bit of a cad. 'I bet she didn't like seeing me kiss Kikyou any more than I liked seeing her kiss Sesshomaru.'

Kagome watched her best friend huff and fidget, a warm fondness blossoming in her chest. It was just like old times: him shy and tongue-tied, her anger dissolving into affection. Perhaps not the heart-tearing love it had once been, but a deep caring, nonetheless. And behind his gruffness, she felt his remorse and tenderness toward her. What would she bet that Miroku had put him up to this?

"It's okay, Inuyasha," she relented, giving his knee a quick pat. "I forgive you for stuff."

He snorted and looked away, his cheeks dusted with pink, "Like I need your forgiveness."

"You want me to take it back?" Kagome asked in mock anger, placing her fists on her hips and thrusting out her bottom lip.

"No, I don't want you to take it back!" he snapped, rising to her bait until he got a good look at her face. He blinked, staring at her plump bottom lip, and without a second thought, caught it in his teeth. Gently, he held it still as he sucked on it, running his tongue over the slick flesh.

"Inu-" Kagome yelped in surprise and he took the opportunity to claim the rest of her mouth, lapping at her lips and tongue as if she were lemonade on a hot summer's day. So this is what a living woman tasted like. He'd had no idea that she would be so slippery and sweet, the tang of soda still on her tongue.

Shocked by the sudden fumbling assault on her mouth, Kagome couldn't help but think, 'Ack! He needs to take lessons from his brother!' Whereas Sesshomaru's kisses had been passionate and sure, Inuyasha was all over the place, slavering on her lips and blindly pushing with his tongue. Just the same, she'd wanted this for so many years that she couldn't push him away. Instead, she pressed against his lips firmly, trying to still their hurried movements with rhythmic caresses. When he seemed to get the idea and settled down, she brushed his tongue with hers, tracing it into his mouth to glide along a fang. A deep rumbling was building in his chest, and she realized that he was slowly moving her to lie on the ground. At the feel of claws scraping her tummy at the hem of her shirt, she broke away, placing a hand on his chest to prevent him from following.

'Well, I've done it. I've finally tongue-kissed Inuyasha,' the thought stumbled through her mind as she gazed at his flushed face, drunken, golden eyes hidden behind heavy lids and lips still parted. Interestingly enough, it only stirred a melancholy sadness. She didn't want to do it again. Inuyasha, on the other hand, had other plans.

"Kagome," he protested, his voice husky and impatient.

"Inuyasha, we can't do this," she scooted her butt away from him, using the weight of his chest on her palms as leverage.

His ears flattened and he whined harshly at the back of his throat. "Why not?"

"I've told you why not."

They sat together in silence, neither meeting the other's eyes, and Kagome could feel the frustration and desperation rolling off of him in palpable waves.

"If this is about Kikyou-" he started but Kagome cut him off.

"It's _always_ about Kikyou." At his stricken expression, she added, "But you'll always be my friend."

"But why can't we-"

"Inuyasha!" she grated and pressed her fingers to her temples. He really was impossible. A fierce surge of anger projected by the decoder ring riveted her eyes to his face.

"Did that asshole give you that!" he shouted, staring at her dog demon ring with jealous hatred. He grabbed her hand, yanking it toward him. "Why that-"

"No, you idiot! Where would he get plastic? I brought it back from my time!" she shouted, trying to jerk back her hand, but to no avail. With a quick snick of his claws, he'd severed the flimsy plastic band and pulled it off her finger. "Inuyasha, you jerk, give it back!"

"It's an ugly little thing, ain't it?" he held it up to his eye and peered at it curiously.

"What do you care? Give it!" Kagome grabbed at it, only to have Inuyasha move it out of reach. Cursing under her breath, she was about to sit the insolent hanyou when her heart stuttered to a stop at Sesshomaru's melodic voice.

"_Little_ brother, you behave like a pup," he chided as he plucked the ring from Inuyasha's out-stretched hand.

'Oh no, oh no! I'm caught!' Kagome tried not to hyperventilate as she watched Inuyasha turn to growl a reply to Sesshomaru. 'Inuyasha will hear Sesshomaru's thoughts…Sesshomaru will feel Inuyasha's emotions…what am I going to do?'

She was beginning to feel nauseous, her ears ringing as gray began to creep over the edges of her sight. Sesshomaru still held the blue dog ring in his hand and she could see his lips moving as he insulted Inuyasha, but the words made no sense to her. His lips curling over his teeth, Inuyasha snarled something and bounded to his feet, shaking one fist in front of the taiyoukai's face. A bead of cold sweat slid out of her hairline and down her spine, catching on the back of her dress, as visions of two pairs of angry golden eyes rounding on her demanding answers flashed across her mind.

She was so dead: Sesshomaru would kill her and Inuyasha would never trust her again. She wasn't sure which was worse, though she supposed that once she was lying in a pool of her own blood, Inuyasha's trust, or lack thereof, would be a moot point. So, so dead…but all she could do was sit, and sweat, and list in her seat as unconsciousness tried to claim her. And just when she thought that she could retreat for a quick stint into black oblivion, her nightmarish vision became reality.

Almost simultaneously, the brothers ceased their bickering and turned to stare at her, faceted topaz and warm amber searching her face…anxiously. Kagome shook her head dazedly and blinked up at them, trying to concentrate on what Inuyasha was saying.

"Kagome! Kagome, are you alright?" Inuyasha grabbed her shoulder before she could topple over and peered into her pale face. Bending from his lofty height, Sesshomaru snaked a supporting arm behind her back, taking a good sniff of her breath and grimacing at the scent of his brother.

"She does not smell ill," he stated, then rounded on his brother over the top of Kagome's head. "What did you do to her, half-breed?"

"Why you-"

"I'm alright!" Kagome interrupted before yet another argument could begin. Amazingly, it didn't look like it was her day to be maimed beyond recognition. She didn't understand it, but she was oh, so grateful. Relief was a soothing salve on her raging nerves, and she took several deep, cleansing breaths. "I guess I'm just tired, is all."

Inuyasha's ears pinned to his head briefly as he took his own whiff of her breath. Shrugging, he said, "I'll help you to your house." He moved his hand from her shoulder to the small of her back, mouth dropping open when he realized that another hand already claimed that position. Baring his teeth, he growled menacingly and Kagome was forcibly reminded of a dog growling over a bone, a comparison that did not amuse her.

Sesshomaru's eyes narrowed, the skin between his eyebrows creasing ever so slightly. "She does not need assistance from the likes of you. I will escort her. And cease that ridiculous display."

"I'll display my foot up your ass if you don't move your grubby mitt!"

Rising to unsteady feet, Kagome shook both brothers' hands from her person. "I'm fine; I can make it there myself." Dusting the grass and dirt from her skirt, she waited for the world to stop its slow rotation, and then asked Sesshomaru, "Could I have my ring back?"

Quicker than she could react, he lowered his head and planted a bruising, wet kiss on her lips as he placed the ring into her waiting palm. Trailing his fingers over hers, he drew back with a tiny smile. Kagome knew that smile: it was his "come to me, bitch, and we will make sweet love in the moonlight" preening smile and she waited for the accompanying perverted thought, tuning out the blustering shouts of the hanyou to her right.

Silence on the mental planes.

Inuyasha lunged forward and Sesshomaru caught his face in his hand. With an easy push, he sent the hanyou staggering backward, cursing up a storm. "Know your place, half-breed," he taunted, smirking in the face of his brother's impotent wrath though his eyes never left her.

Kagome ignored their antics; so intent was she on Sesshomaru's unusual mental hush. "So! Um, I'll just go lie down for a while," she said, and then waited for Sesshomaru's brain to throw in his two perverted cents. She'd left herself wide open with that one, yet still nothing. Where was the lascivious musings of a horny taiyoukai? "…soooo, yeah."

Turning around slowly, her brain unfocused and distant, she wandered back up to her little house, hardly hearing Inuyasha call after her. "Hey, Kagome, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said distractedly, waving at him over her shoulder as she stared at the ring her in hand, the blue plastic band severed near the disc at the top. She had a feeling why neither Inuyasha nor Sesshomaru suspected anything strange about the ring. The very concept was bringing the nausea back in full force. 'He broke it...Inuyasha broke my dog decoder…'


	10. Home Again

Edited by thymecat

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

A/N: Sorry it's been so long since I posted! I won't even try to make excuses. However, I will answer a few questions that have come up.

Yes, this is a Sessh/Kag fic. It may not seem like it in a couple of chapters, but I promise, it is Sessh/Kag. They just have a few hurdles to jump, first.

How long will this fic be? Not really sure, but I don't think I'm even halfway through. Remember, most of theses chapters took place in the past! Now we have the present to cover.

I know there was something else, but I'm too sleepy to remember. Oh well. Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I love each and every one of you! Also, a big thank you to Quirkyslayer and Lori, who nominated this fic for Best OC (Akago!), Serial, and Alternate Pairing for the third quarter IYFG awards.

Okay, enough of my blathering.

Chapter 10 – Home Again 

With distracted chopsticks, Kagome prodded the sunny yellow yoke of the egg that lay atop its bed of rice. The clatter of wood on wood, Miroku lightly teasing Sango, Shippo whining as Inuyasha stole a bite out of his bowl, all of the familiar, comfortable sounds of breakfast hit her eardrums and tumbled down, ignored, as she strained to hear something _else_…

Yet, despite her tense concentration and the beads of moisture that were beginning to form on her brow, only silence caressed her mind's inner ear.

Turning from Miroku with a light blush, Sango cleared her throat and said, "Lord Sesshomaru, did you find your accommodations comfortable?"

"Hn," he replied noncommittally, responding more to the inflection in her voice than to the words she said, his attention fixed elsewhere.

Kagome could feel Sesshomaru's eyes on her legs, wandering over skin exposed by her skirt where it lay demurely against her thigh. Occasionally, the tip of his Mokomoko-sama would twitch; not enough to raise the suspicions of a hanyou who was keeping a close watch on his brother, but a slight curl that brought back vivid memories of soft fur and wet panties. She _knew_ that he was thinking about her. But she couldn't hear him. It was driving her nuts.

Hoping against all logic, she had seated herself next to the taiyoukai just in case the ring did, in fact, still work and only its range had been affected. Unfortunately, she couldn't get any closer to him without touching him.

"Hmmm," she hummed quietly under her breath. 'Maybe if I touch him…'

Leaving one hand still grasping her chopsticks, she let the other slide underneath the table, sneaking a quick glance at Inuyasha. For once, she appreciated his horrible table manners, glad that the bowl that he held to his face with both hands was blocking his view. She held her breath, splaying her fingertips to lightly touch his thigh. The muscle jumped beneath the pads of her fingers and his pelt shuddered. She had a brief moment of feminine triumph that such a small, simple touch by her was all it took to break his calm, before she remembered to listen for his thoughts.

"So, you will be taking your leave today, Lord Sesshomaru?" Sango said, trying to catch his attention. She was fully aware that he was tuning her out and fairly certain as to why. The dog demon sat quietly next to Kagome, eyes hooded by magenta, lowered lids as he sipped his tea, but a flash of gold told her exactly where he was staring.

Rin glanced up sharply, giving Sango an appraising look, and then eyed her lord.

"Damn straight, he is," Inuyasha grunted, and then snuck another bite of rice from Shippo's bowl.

"Are we, Lord Sesshomaru?" Rin asked hopefully. She was tired of being ignored. She didn't like him sitting so close to that girl. And she still had no idea what her lord wanted from her or why he wanted it. "Please?"

Jaken snapped waspishly, "Quiet, girl. Can't you see that our lord is thinking? He will leave when he is ready."

'What _is_ he thinking?' Kagome burned to know, her entire attention focused on the tips of her fingers where they heated small spots of silk, her eyes fixed blankly on her bowl. 'Could it need more contact?' Kagome wondered. To test the theory, she slid her fingers over his leg ever so slowly, until her palm rested on his thigh, and gave it an experimental squeeze.

Sesshomaru swallowed audibly and the hand holding his tea twitched, but Kagome's heart dropped from her chest and into her stomach, where it began to dissolve in the acid. There was no mistaking it: the ring was definitely not working. Oh well, it had been worth a try: it had seemed like such a plausible idea as she'd tossed and turned in her futon last night. But why had she even bothered to get her hopes up? She was cosmically doomed when it came to romance.

"Inuyasha!" Shippo protested loudly as the hanyou snatched the egg out of his bowl and downed it in a noisy slurp.

"That bastard's leaving when I say he is," Inuyasha said, licking yolk from his lips. "Ow!" he hollered and batted at his head where Shippo had latched onto one triangular ear and worried it with his tiny fangs. "Ow-ow! Brat, I'm gonna-"

He was cut off as a glob of sticky, white rice hit him in the face. Rin smirked at him from over the lip of her empty bowl.

"Ood one, In!" Shippo shouted through a mouthful of ear, pounding on Inuyasha's skull with his back feet. Exchanging exasperated glances, Sango and Miroku rolled their eyes. Rapping her hand on the table, Sango shouted, "There will be no throwing food in the house! Inuyasha, Shippo, take it outside!"

"You heard her, runt!" Inuyasha grabbed Shippo by the scruff of his neck and tugged, howling in pain as Shippo's fangs scored deep gouges in his ear. Encouraged by Rin's giggles, Shippo released the ear and twisted in Inuyasha's grasp, sinking his teeth into the hanyou's wrist. Bellowing, Inuyasha shook his arm wildly, but Shippo clung to his arm like a fluffy, growling Velcro monkey.

"Kagome, could you…?" Sango turned to her friend but stopped when she saw the twin distracted expressions of Kagome and Sesshomaru, staring at their respective meals as if Inuyasha and Shippo, with help from Rin, were not threatening to bring the house down around their ears. 'What are those two doing?' Sango wondered as she gave them a quick perusal. Sesshomaru's one hand was holding his tea and Kagome's right hand grasped her chopsticks, but the other was under the table…somewhere… Sango blushed and looked away, focusing instead on Inuyasha, who was trying to smother the kit off of his arm by sitting on his face. 'By the kami, Kagome, I hope you know what you're doing.'

Miroku fell into her, clutching his stomach, his face contorted by silent laughter as tears rolled down his cheeks. "Do men ever grow up?" the slayer grumbled as she pushed her husband back into his seat and slapped the table with her hand again. 'Where's Hiraikotsu when I need it?'

'What do I do?' Kagome chewed on the inside of her lip, oblivious to the bedlam on the other side of the table and forgetful of her hand's residence on Sesshomaru's thigh. She gave her egg a vicious poke, staring unseeing as the yolk burst and viscous yellow liquid dribbled down between grains of rice. 'How can I know what he's thinking if I can't hear what he's thinking?! Argh!' Making a frustrated sound at the back of her throat, she bit down hard on the skin of her cheek, tasting blood, and squeezed the thigh under her hand.

Any woman could have guessed, and fairly accurately, what a man would think of a woman's hand caressing his thigh under a table. A glance at the crotch of Sesshomaru's pants would have told Kagome exactly what the dog demon had on his mind. Even the fact that it was a rather _nice _thigh, complete with a hard ridge of muscle tracing up the top and leading to a generous tent, escaped her normally keen miko senses. She was too wrapped up in lamenting a manufactured handicap to notice.

'I can't take this anymore!' she screamed in her head as she dropped her chopsticks, released Sesshomaru's leg (much to his displeasure), and rose to her feet. "Sango, could I please borrow Kirara?" Kagome asked over the din in the dining room.

Instantly, all activity stopped. Sango froze with her mouth open, poised to yell, her eyes sliding to the miko in startled surprise. His tiny hands still grasping handfuls of silver hair, Shippo tumbled to the floor instead of carrying through with his flying-jump-hair-pull. He tugged Inuyasha's head down with him, but the hanyou just stared at Kagome from his flopped position on the tatami, rice sticking to his face and hair, eyes hurt and baffled.

"W-well of course, Kagome," Sango agreed, relief flooding her and leaving her with a slightly giddy sensation. That was exactly what the girl needed: to get away from Sesshomaru, go home, and give the whole situation some thought. The taiyoukai would loose interest and leave, Inuyasha would hunt down Kikyou, and she would be left with a peaceful, quiet household. "When did you want to leave?"

"Right away, if you don't mind," Kagome said as she straightened her skirt and calculated how long it would take her to pack her small tote. Now that her mind was made up, she couldn't wait to get going. She wouldn't be gone long: just long enough to find another dog demon decoder ring. They were cereal toys, for crying out loud. How hard would it be to find another one? And after that, well, she'd play it by ear. But at least she wouldn't be deaf! At Sango's nod, she flashed the older woman a grateful smile and hurried out of the hut.

"This is all your fault, Inuyasha!" Shippo wailed and gave the hair in his hands a vicious tug.

"No, it ain't! I didn't do anything," growling, Inuyasha popped the kit on the top of his head with his fist and pulled his hair free, leaving several long, silver strands tangled in the whining kit's fingers.

Instead of coming to his rescue, Rin grinned and clapped her hands, bouncing in her seat at the table. Finally, the horrible woman who was trying to take her Sesshomaru-sama was leaving. She would find out what it was he wanted, and she, Rin, would give it to him. Once again, it would be her, Jaken, Ah-Uh and Sesshomaru-sama, just as it had always been and always would be.

Jaken had no such delusions: he knew that there were several days of travel ahead of them and that certain abandonment with Rin was in his near future. Oh, to have known his master's lusty ways when he had first sighted him, tall, proud and beautiful as he stood over the imp's slain enemies. He might have thought twice before giving his vow of fealty if he had known that his job would entail babysitting while his master chased the tail of a human miko. Where were the glorious battles and the stench of blood and victory? Honestly, his master's staff of one head got more action than his Staff of Two Heads. The indignity of it all!

"Mistress, I apologize for my…tardiness," Akago trailed off as she stepped into the room, her eyes sweeping over the upended bowls, scattered food, delighted girl, and pile of hanyou and kitsune, still smacking each other and bickering.

"You didn't miss anything, Akago," Sango said with a weary sigh, running a hand through her shortened locks and missing their silky weight, and then elbowed her husband in the ribs at his amused snicker. "Your report?"

Akago paused, grimacing in disgust as Sesshomaru rose to his feet and swept out of the room, Jaken and Rin close on his heels. "I saw Kagome leave on Kirara. You might want to call her back; we'll have need of Kirara. She can ride flea-brain home," she jerked her thumb at Inuyasha, who stopped mid-stride in his pursuit of his brother to pin his ears and glower.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?" he growled in her face, baring his fangs in a canine snarl.

Akago snarled back, the scar across her face twisting her features into a grotesque mask as she leaned into him, unconsciously taking the stance of a dominant dog. "Do I have to bark it for you?"

Sango cleared her throat loudly and Akago flinched, dismissing Inuyasha as she stepped around him. "Not all of the beetles were destroyed," the apprentice continued quickly. "A large contingent has regrouped not far from the village gates. I think they mean to attack."

"Regrouped?" Sango asked, puzzled. Beetle youkai weren't bright: they swarmed mindlessly, not grouped and planned. What was going on, here? She shook her head, "Akago, are you sure-"

"They are being led by a snake woman," Akago cut her off. "I think," she stopped, and then shook her head. "No, I'm sure she knew I was there."

Inuyasha snorted in derision and poked his head out of the doorway, tasting the air with deeply drawn breaths through his nose. "Fuck, the bitch is right!" he exclaimed when the familiar stench of beetle finally hit his nose. His silver ears swiveled to catch a deep, distant thump, followed by a hollow boom that seemed to vibrate through the earth and into the floorboards beneath his feet. "And they're already here."

Sango, Akago and Miroku all swore colorfully and simultaneously, springing away from the table and out of the house, making a beeline for the weapons shed. Feeling a tug on the bottom of his hakama, Inuyasha glanced down at the worried face of Shippo.

"Aren't you going to get Kagome?" he asked, his jeweled green shining eyes brighter than normal.

"Feh. No time. She'll be safe enough with Kirara and I gotta help protect this village."

"But-"

Inuyasha gave the kit a rough pat on the head. "Quit your sniveling. For a pathetic human, Kagome ain't that bad with a bow." Of their own accord, his eyes were drawn to the tops of the trees visible over the village gates, trees that Kagome would have flown over on her way back home. 'She'd better be okay,' he added silently to himself as he fingered Tetsusaiga's hilt, 'or Sango will have to find herself a new firecat.'

XxxxxxxX

Sliding off of Kirara's back and onto unsteady legs, Kagome groaned and rubbed her aching butt with both hands. As fast as Kirara could fly, it was a long trip back to the well and she'd been riding for hours, from morning well into late afternoon. Unfortunately, she had several more tedious, boring hours of travel ahead of her, and it didn't help that every time she dozed off, she dreamt that it was Sesshomaru she was riding. Kami, did she ache.

With a frustrated sigh, she placed her hands on her lower back and stretched out the kinks, wincing at the popping of her bones. A roll of her neck later and she was hobbling to the little stream next to which they'd landed, licking her dry lips in anticipation of a cool drink. She groaned as she sank to her knees, plopping ungracefully on her backside when her inner thighs screamed in protest. Maybe Souta was right: she was getting soft. Months ago, an extended jaunt on Kirara's back would have been uncomfortable but not nearly this debilitating.

Out of shape or not, the crisp stream water felt like heaven on her wind-chapped skin and tasted just as fresh and wonderful as it ever had. Cupping her hands in the current, she splashed her neck, chest and shoulders, sighing and moaning in utter delight. With a furtive glance around her and seeing no one but Kirara, who was rolling in a sunny patch of weeds, she kicked off her shoes and waded into the water, giving in her childish urge to wiggle her toes in the mud at the bottom of the stream.

Tall, fronded water plants waved lazily as the current dragged at their slender stalks and iridescent blue dragonflies hovered over the more sluggish parts of the stream. As Kagome watched, a sleek flash of silver swallowed one fat dragonfly, only momentarily encouraging the rest to fly higher over the water. But as the sun beat down and the water flowed, the grasses swayed and the heavy drone of insects resumed, they grew less cautious and floated lower and lower toward the surface of the water.

Kagome yawned widely and scratched her belly. She could use a real nap on solid, unmoving ground where the threat of periodic groping was nonexistent. And on the opposite bank of the shallow stream, as if it were placed there for her use by the kami themselves, grew an enormous willow tree, its spindly branches forming an inviting, shady canopy as they arched over the bank to trail in the stream. Giving her stomach another good scratch, she grinned and slid her feet toward her awaiting bower, enjoying the way the silky silt slid over her toes.

Kirara growled behind her suddenly and she spun around, almost losing her balance and pin wheeling her arms to avoid an unintentional bath. Her fur bristled and lips snarling, Kirara glared into the trees with red eyes, her tail thrashing the air behind her.

"What is it, Kirara?" Kagome asked as she staggered back toward the shore, suddenly regretting that she had left her bow and arrows so far from the water. The firecat's growl grew into a roar as the forest exploded outward, leaves and slender branches whizzing through the air and flying into the stream. A hulking, antennaed monstrosity lunged out of the hole in the foliage, its black shell seemingly painted with an oil slick and shimmering in the sunlight. Six spiny legs dug into the soft earth when it landed and it clicked protruding black mandibles at her, raising two pieces of the shell on its back and buzzing its transparent, veined wings.

It was…a giant beetle. Kagome hated bugs.

Screaming shrilly, Kagome lunged out of the water toward her bow, shuddering as its faceted eyes followed her movements and reflected dozens of pale, disgusted Kagomes back at her. Apparently, it wasn't terribly bright because it didn't leap at her until she had her bow in hand and an arrow confidently nocked. Gritting her teeth against the willies crawling her spine, Kagome release her arrow just as bug took flight, its wings nothing more than gray smudges beneath the inky, raised shells.

Her arrow hit the underside of the beetle with a wet crunch and it had time to flail its legs wildly before it exploded in a dazzling spray of pink light, whirling bits of shell and rusty-brown slime. Kagome's stomach tried to revolt at the sudden stench but a second chattering black bug sprang out of the trees toward her. Swallowing the bile that rose in her throat, she nocked another arrow.

"Get out of the way, Kirara!" Kagome shouted as the cat leapt into her line of sight.

Marginally more intelligent than its buddy, this beetle didn't bother to wait before attacking, though it gave Kagome reason to doubt her first impression when it presented her with its pointed, armored posterior. Having no qualms against shooting it in the ass, Kagome was about to fire when it expelled a dark cloud of noxious gas. Kirara whimpered and fell on her side, loosing her large form in a half-hearted burst of flame. Gagging and choking, tears streaming from stinging eyes, Kagome retreated back into the water, nocking the arrow by instinct and squinting through the blur toward her target. Fortunately, it was almost too big to miss, especially now that it was flying toward her.

With another shriek of outrage, Kagome fired, just as a thin streak of green light sliced through the beetle's body, cutting it in half messily. Her arrow, surrounded by a corona of pure, pink light, hit milliseconds after, and the bug popped with a thunderous crack. Crouching low in the water as shards of shell spun through the air over her head, she cursed the foul luck that recently liked to land her with slimly, stinky demons instead of the kind that just turned into dust when killed.

As the beetle's miasma cleared and no other giant insects leapt out of the trees to attack, Kagome coughed into her hand and scowled at a large chunk of beetle as it washed downstream. 'Beetles…now what does that remind me of?' Chewing on her lip, she began to scrub at a glob of yuck that had become glued to her leg until she was struck with an uncomfortable thought, 'Oh no! I forgot to tell Sango about the blank decoder ring!'

So caught up with Sesshomaru's attentions and the unexpected loss of her secret weapon, the need to tell Sango her suspicions concerning the beetles' uncanny ability to predict the slayers' movements had slipped her mind entirely. 'Then again,' Kagome pursed her lips in thought, mentally reviewing her opponents' blundering attacks, 'these beetles weren't that tough. Maybe Sango was mistaken? Maybe they didn't find the blank, after all?'

"Pathetic insects," stated a calm, mildly disdainful voice that alternately gave her the shivers and pissed her off.

'Damn it, damn it, damn it!' she threw a temper tantrum in her mind, pounding mental fists on the ground. Couldn't he have waited to confront her until _after_ she acquired another ring? Uncurling and splashing out of the stream, she glared at the miraculously pristine Sesshomaru, arms and legs akimbo as she stood on the bank. "I was doing just fine on my own, thank you very much."

He eyed her gooey shirt skeptically and Kagome immediately glanced down, pulling the soggy garment from her chest to hide the fact that she was wearing a purple bra under a cream-colored top. Why, why did Sesshomaru always catch her in a wet tee shirt? He must have titty radar hidden up his empty sleeve.

"You have traveled far from the village," Sesshomaru stated the obvious with a knowing quirk of his eyebrows.

Kagome glared at him and shifted her weight nervously, not liking being caught alone with the taiyoukai and without her ring. "I'm going home, Sesshomaru."

"Yes," he replied as a slow, sinful smile crept over his lips.

Her brow furrowed and she scratched the back of her neck, wondering what she wasn't getting. Shouldn't he be protesting, if he wanted to get her in the sack? "I'm going home," she repeated, just in case he hadn't heard her correctly the first time.

'The euphemisms young people use these days,' Sesshomaru mused. 'I must make a note to stay abreast of common parlance. My slang is getting rusty.' He nodded and agreed, "Whatever you prefer to call it."

'What else would I call it?' Kagome wondered. 'He's thinking something perverted. Now, if I were a horny dog demon, how would I interpret that?' She drew a blank. "Sesshomaru, I don't think you understand. I am going. Home."

"I understand you, my coy little miko, and I accept your offer," he said, and then adjusted himself to show her just how much it pleased him.

"My offer?" Kagome squeaked, completely confused and more than a little embarrassed. His mind was definitely wallowing in the gutter, if his hand on his groin was any indication, but what could he find sexy about her going home? And what offer was he talking about? Stupid, stupid Inuyasha for breaking her decoder ring. With great hesitation, she asked, "You…want to come home with me?"

He blinked languidly and pulled the scabbards of his swords from his sash. 'We will take each other home,' he thought as he smirked at her, the points of his fangs peeking over his lips, 'many times before moon rises while you scream my name to the heavens.' His smile widened as the thought of just how at home he would feel buried in her body drained the blood from his head and inflated his dick. His sash soon found a new home coiled over his swords.

Drawling smoothly, he spoke as if the answer was clear to both of them and she was merely playing hard to get, "Your offer from this morning, little miko. Though I did not expect you to travel such a great distance, I am sure you had your reasons." His patronizing tone implied that any such reasons could not be mentioned in polite company.

Kagome took a deep breath and stepped backward, her eyes locked on his hand as he undid the clasps of his armor. 'Oh my god, oh my god, he's stripping!' She began to feel light-headed, and then remembered to breath. 'All he needs is a little techno music. Is he wearing a thong under that?' She took another step backward, blushing enough for the both of them as an oiled Sesshomaru did the bump-and-grind through her imagination, wearing nothing but a black codpiece and a tuxedo collar. She'd tucked a few bills into his G before she came to her senses. 'If I don't stop him, I'm going to find out!'

"What offer, Sesshomaru?" she said as sharply as she could muster, considering the fact that she was torn between the desire to see what kind of underwear Sesshomaru wore and fear that he wouldn't be wearing them long enough for her to appreciate them. "And I've traveled so far because I'm flying home on Kirara!"

His hands stilled on the ties of his hakama and he fixed her with a pointed, golden stare, "You are going home."

"Yes," she exclaimed and nodded vigorously, relieved that he'd stopped undressing. Well, not relieved so much as disappointed. No! Relieved! Definitely relieved.

"I see," he said, then nodded as he jerked loose the knot that held his hakama and released the ties, letting it puddle at his feet. So, the miko wanted a rendezvous en route to her destination. He could respect that.

His kimono was long enough to cover his boy parts, the hem reaching mid thigh, but Kagome could certainly see that there was activity going on underneath. He stepped out of his pants, lean, corded muscles flexing under skin that had not an ounce of body fat. Twin magenta stripes wrapped around his ankles and his long toes ended in neatly manicured claws. Fine white hairs powered his legs and her fingers itched to see if they felt as downy-soft as they looked. Not that she was looking. Now, how was she going to get out of this mess?

"Um," she said as she backpedaled into the stream, twisting her fingers together and trying to look anywhere but at him, only to find her eyes drawn back to the peak in his kimono, which threatened to blow open in the lightest of breezes. 'Boxers or briefs? Boxers or briefs? Boxers or-' "Ah, ummm, Sesshomaru, I didn't make any offers."

"Of course, you did," he purred as he stalked forward. "You made your intentions clear and then left, expecting me to follow."

'Poor miko, so flustered. She shakes in her desire for me. So, I shall not make her wait.' He ran his eyes over her lithe form, still splattered with demon gore and far too clothed for his taste. It was a pity that the beetle youkai smelled so fetid; he would have enjoyed licking her clean. That wasn't saying he couldn't dirty her with something that tasted better and _then_ lick her clean. Not a bad idea, that.

She squealed as she danced backward through the water. She had touched his thigh at breakfast: was that what this was about? But that had just been a little experiment! "No! No, I didn't! That wasn't…I didn't mean…Eep!"

A strong breeze gusted over the stream and parted Sesshomaru's kimono, finally providing the answer to the ultimate question that had occupied her brain: none at all. He wore no boxers, no briefs, no thong, no traditional cloth to gird his loins. Twirling around, she pressed cold hands to her hot cheeks and tried to catch her breath. A moment later, she realized that he could sneak up behind her with that…that…where did he _put_ that, anyway? And looking at it was better than feeling it suddenly, and without warning, on her… She shivered, and in the interest of self-preservation, spun back around to face him. To her immense discomfort, she found that he'd advanced into the water and was now only a few feet away from her.

Unable to help herself, she glanced down, morbidly fascinated by the gleaming, swollen head that stared back up at her. 'The carpet matches the drapes,' she thought and suppressed a hysterical little giggle that was fighting its way up her throat. 'And it has stripes, too! Do not laugh at Sesshomaru's penis,' she warned herself as she put more distance between her and the bobbing rod that prevented his kimono from closing again.

"There's been a misunderstanding!" Kagome exclaimed as he moved to close the space between them, thrusting her hands in front of her and waving them frantically. His eyes narrowed and she rushed on hastily, "I'm sorry, but that was just, um, something humans do to, um, show affection. It wasn't an invitation to, um, ah…"

'Wrong thing to say?' she winced as his eyes narrowed further and the corners of his mouth tensed. Oh, what she would give to hear his thoughts now. Would he kill her for denying him? Force her to finish him? The longer he stood there and glared at her, the more nervous she became. When he finally broke the silence, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"I see," he said and Kagome had the urge to check the stream to make sure it hadn't frozen over.

How could he have misread her signs so completely? She had caressed his leg, rubbing her scent on it, and left. If that didn't mean, "let's go have sex," then he didn't know what did.

He'd come so close to winning this infernal bet! Now, he was standing in a river, being denied relief by a human girl, wearing nothing but his kimono and sporting a massive boner. To force a woman was to have no honor, but he had to come out of this with his dignity in tact and her bed still attainable.

She was duly impressed by his size, perhaps even intimidated, and that helped to sooth his male ego (though not the tension in his balls). She had also mentioned feeling affectionate toward him, which had to bring him closer to his goal. To his surprise, he realized that he wasn't quite as angry as he thought he should be and that her fondness for him made his heart a little lighter. Such emotions were potentially dangerous, he knew, but remarkably pleasant. He supposed that a little mutual affection couldn't hurt, especially considering how much time he planned to spend with her once she succumbed to his charms.

"Would you please put your clothes back on?" Kagome whispered when she was reasonably sure that she would survive yet another bizarre encounter with the taiyoukai.

His scowl softened into a smirk and he flexed a muscle in his groin. Brown eyes widening as his third leg saluted her, she tried to stifle a little gasp that was music to his hears. 'You want me, girl. I will let your eyes feast what you so cruelly deny yourself.'

"No," he said, slipping his kimono off of his left shoulder and catching it in his right hand, then tossed it to the girl. "Wash this while I bathe."

Kagome glared at the mane of white hair that (unfortunately) covered his backside as he strolled up the stream, but decided against saying anything. 'That could have gone a lot worse. Just wash the damn shirt and be thankful you've got both arms.'

"I suggest you bathe, as well, miko," he threw over his shoulder. "You smell like a charnel house."

"That was less than romantic," she grumbled under her breath, forgetting that he could hear her as easily as if she had shouted it. Kneeling in the water and splashing around, she got as much beetle innards off of her as possible, then gave the taiyoukai's kimono a quick rinse. At least, it _would_ have been quick if she'd kept her mind on her task instead of ogling the nude Adonis striking practiced poses upstream.

'Just you wait, Sesshomaru,' she mused, watching one sculpted cheek flex as he tossed his hair and shifted his weight from his right foot to his left. Boldly gleaming in the sunlight, a pair of stripes slashed across each ass cheek, spelling "Spank me!" to her hormonal, overwrought brain. She wanted to squeeze that butt so badly that she _ached_, and she was damn sure that he knew it. 'I'll find another ring and _then_ we'll talk. Or whatever.'

Her chore finished, she waited until his face was turned away from her to throw his sodden garment at his head. With a deft move, he snatched it out of the air and gave her a steel glower.

"All done!" she chirped with a bright, ersatz smile, splashing out of the stream toward Kirara.

With a wide, lazy yawn, the firecat climbed to her feet and shook her coat, then burst into a large ball of flame, emerging as a giant, saber-toothed lion. Leaving a naked taiyoukai standing in the stream staring at her, Kagome climbed aboard and gave him a little wave as Kirara lifted into the air.

XxxxxxxX

Sesshomaru gazed into the black maw of the Bone Eater's well, the dim stars above providing more than enough light to see that Kagome was no longer at the bottom. He had already known this because her beetley scent had led into the well and not back out of it and the flash of blue light that had followed her entry had pushed against his aura with a tingle of old magic.

"_Where would he get plastic? I brought it back from my time!" _she had shouted at his brother. Her time…plastic…

Running a clawed hand over the rough edge of the well, he felt a dim echo of its power thrum through the wooden walls. He should have known that a woman dressed like her would not be of this world…or this time, to be exact.

Why had he not realized it before? Silly pink drying sheets, pulpy scrolls bound at one edge, colored wax sticks used for drawing, even her brightly colored, tantalizing undergarments: these were not items from any village he had ever known. They pointed to a distant future, and if the length of her skirt was an example of up-and-coming fashion, a future that he would enjoy immensely.

Just the same, a chill was settling in his stomach, a growing feeling of unease that tickled his insides with tiny, fluttering feet. It had started the moment he had watched her leap into the darkness to be swallowed by light, and had only grown colder and more invasive. He was beginning to regret his decision to remain hidden in his treetop perch, obscured by the pre-dawn gloom, instead of snatching her out of the air before she disappeared.

He heard the golem approach long before she spoke, her footsteps silent as she flattened the dewy grass beneath her sandals. 'I would not fuck her,' Sesshomaru thought, ignoring the clay priestess and her amphibious familiars even as she stopped to stand by his side.

She sighed, the mournful sound of the wind flowing over the mouth of a jug, and said, "I had not expected it to be you."

One sentence, and already this woman bored him, if she could even be called such. He had heard that Kagome was her reincarnation and wanted to laugh out loud at the foolishness. There was no comparison.

"It should have been him," she continued, not at all intimidated by his oppressive silence. "He should have moved on."

'He should have done many things,' Sesshomaru was tempted to point out, but refrained. The shell of a priestess was beneath his notice and therefore not worthy of a response. She could prattle on until she decomposed before he'd deign to acknowledge her.

"No matter," she sighed again and Sesshomaru suppressed the degrading urge to shudder. "Soon, he will not have a choice." With long, graceful fingers, she traced a knot in the grain of the wood, following the ridges and whorls to its center, then spiraling back out. Over and over, she caressed it, her sad eyes fixed on the path of her fingertips.

Sesshomaru didn't know what she meant and could care less. Assuming that the odd, one-sided conversation was over, he turned away and began the long trek to rejoin his small pack, left deep in the forest to sleep away the dawn.

"Tell him…I did, too."

Her last sentence drifted to him on a chill breeze and the finality of it was fuel to the knot of dread that was rooting into his stomach. 'She knows something,' he realized, and stopped walking, glancing at her over his shoulder.

The priestess Kikyou was gone.

Xxx Present Day xxX

For what seemed like an eternity, she stared at her hand, her heart skipping and jumping in her breast like a child who'd had too much caffeine. After all that searching and digging through cereal, she'd finally found her holy grail: the dog decoder ring. More precious than sapphire, the blue plastic pricked her palm with unfinished edges and heady potential. She would keep this one safe and secret, away from prying, canine eyes and destructive claws.

She hadn't fully understood the draw of the Shikon Jewel on others until the moment Inuyasha had broken her ring. The power was addictive, granting her a control over others and her own life that she'd never had before and now couldn't live without. It promised answers to her questions, solutions to her problems, an end to her uncertainty. Deep in the recesses of her subconscious, she knew this was false and that the ring had led to a whole new level of frustration, but the knowledge stayed buried, unwanted, and unexamined.

Her senses tingled at the base of her skull and she dragged her eyes away from the ring to stare out the dark kitchen window. Faceless shadows seethed just beyond the glass, watching with invisible eyes that seemed to peel away the skin to see the flesh beneath and squeeze the thoughts from her brain cells.

"Buyo?" she whispered, her voice quavering as her fingers closed over the ring in her palm. "This isn't funny." His shiny green eyes remained conspicuously absent from the window and Kagome shuddered, no longer able to deny the fact that something was out there looking at her, _waiting_ for something, _listening_ for something?

Like a giant gong ringing in her soul, Kagome suddenly resonated with the need to get back to the past. She knew in the very marrow of her bones that she had made a grave mistake by not telling Sango about the blank ring that broadcasted human thoughts. Her priorities had been in the wrong place and the price she might pay for being selfish would be more than she could afford. Stuffing the dog ring in her pajamas and making a mad dash for the kitchen door, Kagome hoped that she could forestall whatever terrible consequences were coming, if only she could make it to the well RIGHT NOW!

A deafening explosion knocked her off her feet, shattering the windows in the kitchen, and a wave of heat washed over her skin. Rolling to her hands and knees, she lunged for the door that now swung ajar and canted drunkenly on its hinges. Dark, humanoid shapes were silhouetted against brilliant orange flame and one twisted, pointing toward her. Another shape, the body long and serpentine topped by a shaggy head, undulated into the air to stand on a coiled tail. Heart pounding frantically with fear for her family's and the well's safety, Kagome cursed the fact that her bow was inconveniently stuffed in her closet. But when had she ever let unbeatable odds deter her?

Another explosion ripped the air apart and a heavy ceramic vase teetered precariously in its place on top of a cabinet, and then tumbled forward. It met the back of Kagome's skull with a sharp, musical crash and Kagome was out like a light.


	11. Old Friend

Edited by: thymecat. Everyone give special thanks to my wonderful beta!

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takashi.

Chapter 11 – Old Friend… 

The thunder of adolescent male feet on wooden stairs woke Kagome out of a self-indulgent wallow in pity, just in time to scoot to the side of the step that had become her seat and narrowly miss being trampled by Souta and their younger cousin, Sho, on their way to the arcade. With arms and legs splayed, Sho leapt the last couple of steps to land loudly on the pavement, shouting a battle cry of triumph. Souta hooted in admiration, pumping his fist in the air, but instead of continuing down the steps, turned to his gloomy sister.

"You sure you don't want to go shoot aliens with us, Sis?" he asked, his voice cracking between the high tones of childhood to a smooth baritone. His clear brown eyes were alight with concern under an unruly mop of brown hair, and it seemed to Kagome that as she watched, the boyish softness of his features was slimming into the lean lines of manhood.

'Four years…and he's growing so fast,' Kagome sighed and shook her head no, plopping her chin in her hands. "No, you guys go have fun."

"You've been sitting on these steps for two weeks," he pointed out. "Summer ends in less than a month; you gonna sit here until the semester starts?"

Kagome stared up at him sadly and her forlorn expression tore at his heart. Ever since the well had been destroyed in the explosion, taking some of the shrine with it, Kagome had been a morose shadow of her former self. Souta suspected that Kagome blamed herself for the fire: she admitted to being up and seeing someone, but the boy saw no way that she could have prevented it.

As the man of the house, the tower of strength on which his family would lean, Souta had shoved his sorrow for the loss of his dog-brother deep into the darkest recesses of his heart. He'd ceased to idolize the guy after a couple of years of watching him break his sister's heart, but he loved the gruff hanyou despite his flaws. He missed Inuyasha desperately, but he wouldn't show it to Kagome. He had to be strong and pull her out of the funk into which she'd fallen. He could pretend that everything was all right to everyone else and grieve in private.

"Would Inuyasha have wanted you to sulk away your summer?" Souta asked quietly in an attempt to pull her out of her melancholy. 'Oops,' he thought when her eyes filled with tears and she turned her head to the side, blinking rapidly. "I'm sorry, Sis. Forget I said anything."

Sniffling and wiping at her eyes, Kagome heaved a shuddering sigh. "No, you're right. He'd want…"

'…me on my back,' she finished silently, but even that stark truth couldn't pierce her melancholy. It hurt too much to talk about him in the past tense…as if he were dead. She felt raw inside, grated down to exposed nerve endings that fired pain endlessly to her brain. Sango, Miroku, Shippo, Inuyasha…Sesshomaru: the beings that touched her life in so many indefinable ways, randomly ripped from her grasp by an unknown assailant. She had always known that the well could close any day and that she would have to pick up the frayed ends of her "normal" life in the present. Why did it have to be now? Why couldn't she have been strong enough to confront the attackers and beat them back?

For days, she had done nothing but cry on the spare futon in her Aunt's guest bedroom. The shrine had been left uninhabitable by the explosion and subsequent fires that utterly demolished the well house. Her mother's eldest sister had taken them in, just as she had after her father's death, and had thankfully left her alone. Her mother had tried to comfort her, reminding her that her friends would always be with her as long she held them in her heart, but the sentiment had seemed hollow, somehow. Summoning her best fake smile, Kagome had assured her mother that she would be fine; she just needed some time alone to sort through things. As understanding as always, her mother had smiled and nodded, leaving her be with a soft kiss to her forehead.

She just didn't have words to explain how much her lost friends meant to her and had no idea what place Sesshomaru now occupied in her heart. Even Akago and her caustic remarks would have been welcome, if only because it meant that her second family were not out of reach, after all.

"_Quit your bellyaching, you demon's bitch, and go out and do something useful,"_ she could hear Akago say before stomping off in disgust. 'I've never felt more useless,' Kagome moped and plucked at the hem of her skirt.

Souta snapped his fingers, a hopeful light shining behind his eyes. "You know what? Auntie said that the 12 Bus that stops right down the street goes all the way to the coast. Maybe you should go? For a change of scenery?" He nudged his sister in the ribs and gave her a broad wink. "Scenery, get it?"

Kagome looked at him blankly.

"Hunky guys in swim trunks, like on the covers of those books you read?"

"Souta!" Kagome protested, swatting at his shoulder but missing when he jumped away.

Grinning, finally getting a rise out of his sister, he took another jab. Tapping his finger on his chin and looking playfully thoughtful, he said, "You know, I checked those books where the pages were most worn 'cause I thought they'd be the best parts…"

"Souta…" Kagome growled as she flushed beet red, her dark eyes sparkling with embarrassment and anger. How dare he paw through her romance novels! She didn't sneak peeks at his hentai manga collection! Well, other than the first time when she "accidentally" found it stuffed between his mattresses…and the time she had decided to check on it, just to make sure it was still there, for blackmail purposes, of course…and the time she'd wanted to find out if Hitomi and her vampire lover had moved from oral sex to…

Souta gave himself a mental pat on the back: she looked pissed…and guilty. "But when I read the sections…" he shuddered theatrically. "Really, Kagome. 'He thrust his purple-headed warrior into her quivering mound of-'?"

"Ow!" he howled and leapt out of slapping range, racing down the steps from the fire-breathing dragon that his sister had become. Landing heavily next to the hysterically laughing Sho, Souta shouted, "Run!" and took off in a dead heat. After a quick glance at Kagome, Sho's dark eyes widened and he sprinted after Souta, still snickering. Taller than Souta by several inches, seemingly all legs and arms, he quickly caught up to his cousin.

"Holy shit, she's scary!" Sho panted to Souta as he ran past him.

Souta nodded, grinning manically. "Go to the beach!" he yelled over his shoulder at his fuming sister, who stood on the sidewalk glaring at them, her fists balled in impotent fury. The boys cornered sharply, and finally the baleful glare was off their backs.

As she watched them disappear around a corner, her anger washed out of her, leaving her feeling alive and tingly. "Maybe I will," she said out loud, and for the first time in two weeks, a wide, true smile stretched her lips. The idea of a little ocean air, coupled with the rush of adrenaline, was stirring the sluggish blood in her veins. Oh, she still felt like yesterday's road kill left to rot at the side of the road, but now she was road kill with a _goal_. 'That didn't make any sense,' Kagome chastised herself with a tiny, mocking smile and pushed to her feet. 'Big deal.'

She had a tote to pack.

XxxxxxxX

"Kagome! Is that you?"

Suddenly, the fresh, salty, fishy air turned sour and Kagome rolled her eyes at the horizon where water met sky. Up until that very moment, she had almost been enjoying herself, wandering up the beach while the waves lapped and sucked at her feet, picking up broken bits of shell and tossing them into the frothy water. The crisp spray that dampened her skirt and kissed her face had begun to clear the cobwebs of grief from her mind; only temporarily, perhaps, but she had needed the reprieve.

"Oi, Kagome, wait up!" the male voice shouted again from behind her, hauntingly familiar.

He was probably an old schoolmate and wanted to catch up. The way her luck had been running, it was probably Hojo and he had some ointment he wanted to give her. 'Is that a tube of Ben-Gay in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?' she quipped to herself as she quickened her steps, lowering her head against the wind.

"Kagome!" he protested, now directly behind her, just before laying a large hand on her shoulder.

Sighing heavily, forced into this reunion that she didn't want, she turned to the man who was determined to spoil her afternoon…and stopped dead. The world went out of focus for a short moment as her brain threw a cog and rumbled to a shuddering halt. "K-kouga?"

"In the flesh! Why didn't you stop? Hey, you okay?" he asked, catching her elbow in one rough, calloused hand, then slipping his arm around her waist to guide her to his lounge chair and umbrella. Kagome followed obediently, too shocked to do anything more than put one foot in front of the other. After sitting her in his chair, he squatted in front of her, brushing her bangs away from her forehead and peering into her pale face.

"Kouga?!" she repeated, blinking back tears as she stared into his bright blue eyes. With each sweep of her eyelids, she expected his handsome face to blur into a cruel mirage. He grinned roguishly, the points of his fangs hidden carefully behind his lips, but it was the same smile he'd always given her. His dark hair was long and loose, buffeted by the wind and doing nothing to hide his elven ears. As she watched, the points of his ears wavered, almost disappearing, and then become solid once again. _Magic_. _Demons_. In her time!

With an inarticulate cry, she flung her arms around his neck and squeezed as if he'd evaporate like morning mist. Hesitantly at first, he embraced her, and when she made no move to let go, hugged her back just as fiercely.

Laughing through her tears, she planted a wet, noisy kiss on his cheek, and then buried her face in the crook of his neck. An onerous weight had been lifted from her heart, its true burden never fully realized until it was gone. She could've dance with joy, sung at the top of her lungs, spun in circles until she fell to the ground, but instead, she held her dear friend close and watered his neck.

Kouga patted her back, loving every minute he got to spend holding the dear girl against his chest. Shushing her like a cub, he inhaled the sweet, clean fragrance of her hair and smiled dreamily. Faded memories of an age long forgotten began to bubble through his mind: uncertain and tragic times at best, but this scent, this girl had made them bearable. "Don't cry, Kagome. I'm here. Don't cry," he whispered against her hair until her sobs slowed to hiccups, then to sniffles, and finally to a slow, shuddering sigh.

Pulling away, Kagome wiped at her face and started to apologize, "Sorry I'm such a crybaby-"

"What are friends for, eh?" He handed her a tall glass with the remnants of a watered down drink swirling at the bottom. "Here, have a sip and I'll order another round." Gratefully drinking it down while Kouga flagged the waiter, Kagome tried to organize the multitude of questions that were beating around in her head. If Kouga were alive, that meant that Inuyasha, Shippo and Sesshomaru could still be around, too! She hadn't lost all of her family! Although Sango and Miroku were surely…

'No, I won't think of that right now. I'll concentrate on the good.' To her surprise, a startlingly blue drink had appeared by her elbow, a matching concoction in Kouga's hand, and she picked it up, giving it a quick sniff. Kouga grinned and clicked the bottom of his glass against hers, so she smiled back and took a long drink. It was sweet, tangy and delightfully cold, and before she knew it, half of it was gone. If there was alcohol in it, she didn't taste it.

The centuries had been good to Kouga, she decided. His face was still as youthful as she remembered; he had a deep tan…and no shirt. She couldn't help but notice that his chest was beautifully sculpted and completely hairless except for a dark line that stretched from his navel to the waistband of his shorts, worn low on his hips. Catching herself eyeing the fly, she blushed deeply. 'You're checking out _Kouga_, Kagome. He's a _friend_.'

'A _hot_ friend,' her mind supplied unnecessarily and she realized that she was _still _staring at his fly.

"Is Ayame here?" she asked as she met his eyes again, hoping that she wasn't. She selfishly wanted Kouga to herself. At the flash of old pain behind his blue eyes, she winced, feeling like an insensitive twit. "Oh, Kouga, I didn't-"

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her quickly. "It was a long time ago." His gaze became unfocused, distant, so unlike the Kouga she had known that the tears began to well behind her eyes again. Like the snap of a rubber band, his attention was once again centered on her, his signature grin lighting up his face. "Besides, you'll always be my woman."

Kagome blushed and took another long sip of her drink. It was good to know that some things never changed.

"Have you had dinner yet?" Kouga changed the subject and Kagome shot him a grateful smile, shaking her head no. He grabbed his shirt from the back of the chair and stood, holding out his hand to her. "Come on, I know of a great little place right on the sand with the best seafood you've ever tasted!"

XxxxxxxX

Sesshomaru fingered a small, wooden box at the corner of his desk, running his fingers over the uneven grain of the wood before undoing a small brass latch and flipping open the lid. The box was not beautiful, the wood gray, rough and worn despite the best efforts of his woodworkers. Even after hours under sandpaper, it sometimes reminded its handler of its origins with a sliver of wood buried in his palm. Ugly and ornery or not, the box, carved from the wood of an old well, was one of his favorite possessions because of what it preserved inside: a pair of pink satin panties.

He stared at them fondly, running a clawed finger over the fabric and inhaling the delicate fragrance that wafted up to his nose. He didn't know how, but the old wood stolen from the well had managed to preserve a whisper of the scent of the panties' owner, the only woman he'd pursued but never bedded; the one that got away. Why she'd never come back and why he'd let her go in the first place were questions that had nibbled on the edge of his consciousness for the last five hundred years like a teething pup.

It had been the novel that he'd spotted first, sitting quietly on an airport newsstand, sandwiched between two other romances with hulking, underdressed men holding fainting women on the cover. He must have looked comical as he'd done a double take, but Sesshomaru hadn't cared in the slightest. There had been no doubts in his mind: it was Kagome's book, or a copy thereof. A wicked smile had tugged at the corner of his lips as he realized just what, exactly, his little miko had like to read. Naughty girl.

That was when he'd dug the box out of storage and found that after a century of neglect, the panties still smelled faintly of Kagome.

A wire of excitement had wound through his gut as he'd scoured the city for his elusive little vixen. Unfortunately, he had been armed only with her first name and after the drastic remapping of the land as the city had grown, he had had no idea where the old well now stood. Asking Inuyasha for help was out of the question: he'd never told the hanyou of his suspicions regarding Kagome's origins and he had no intention of reminding him that Kagome may be back. Besides, how difficult could it be to find one human girl? Very, very difficult.

The Hello Kitty™ beach towel had been his next big find, displayed proudly in a web banner advertisement last year. Once again, he'd combed the city for a sign of her and had come up empty handed. He needed a plan, he'd decided, that brought the woman to him.

Brilliance had struck him while he was driving and he had seen _it_. Larger than life, it was plastered on a billboard next to the freeway, sitting on the finger of a boy grinning over a bowl of breakfast cereal that just happened to be produced by his newest business acquisition. It was an ugly yellow plastic ring with a flat disc at the top, embossed with the kanji for rabbit. He knew that ring. Kagome had had two of those rings. He _owned_ those rings.

A quick phone call had revealed that the Demon Decoder Rings, as Marketing called them, were due to be released in a week in the Happy Fruit, Golden Puffs and Chocolate Balls cereal lines. Another quick phone call, and he'd directed a kitsune employee to enchant the rings to broadcast the presence of a strong miko, to be picked up by a receiver that the kitsune delivered to him posthaste.

Weeks had passed before the receiver, a multicolored plastic sphere, began to pulse, signifying that a powerful miko possessed one of the rings. Four times, he'd chased through the city, letting the receiver guide him to a quiet part of Tokyo with ever-increasing pulses, and four times, the receiver had stilled before he'd reached his target. The last time had occurred two weeks ago and he was sure that he'd almost found her when the receiver went dead. Unfortunately, a fire at a local shrine had clogged the air with ash and soot to the point that his nose had closed up and he'd gone home, though not in defeat. It was merely a…respite to…marshal his forces…damn it all.

Sesshomaru toyed with the delicate, intimate garment, letting the satin slide over the fingers of his left hand and coat his skin with her scent, skin that had never had the chance to touch her heated flesh. It might have seemed like a lot of trouble and expense to go through for one human woman, especially when there were so many other human women out there. If anyone had asked, which no one did if they valued their limbs, he would have told them that this Sesshomaru Did Not Lose. He would win this ridiculous five hundred year old bet, even if he had to search the city on foot with his nose to the ground. Not that it would come to that…he hoped.

Only to himself would he admit that he had enjoyed the challenge that she'd presented. It had left a mark on his ageless spirit that no amount of time or females could erase. Not even to himself would he admit that her disappearance had hurt, that the spark of growing affection between them had never been extinguished, and that his desire to find her again was anything more than wrapping up old business.

The squawk of his desk intercom startled him out of his reverie and he cursed under his breath, pushing the button to answer, "Yes, Hakaru."

"Your brother is here to see you, sir," the prim, nasally voice informed him.

Sesshomaru eyes narrowed as he pushed the button again. "Tell him I'm not in today."

"The fuck you aren't," his half-brother's voice overrode that of his secretary, and Sesshomaru had just enough time to close and latch the little box before his office door slammed open.

Inuyasha's eyes immediately widened as he took a long sniff of the office, his ears twitching atop his head. Sesshomaru waited for the outburst impassively, swearing long and silently as he watched the hanyou glance furtively around the room. Of all the days for the hanyou to drop by, he had to pick one of the few when he'd opened the box. He could almost see the wheels turning in Inuyasha's brain.

"Do I smell…?" Inuyasha trailed off as he flared his nostrils and narrowed his eyes. Glancing surreptitiously (or so the half-breed liked to think, Sesshomaru mused uncharitably) around the office, he finally locked his golden eyes on his brother with an irritated, guarded glare.

"Terribly," Sesshomaru stated, purposefully misunderstanding him. "But I doubt you came here to discuss your hanyou stench."

'She liked to bathe,' the thought floated unbidden to the top of his mind, along with a vivid image of her in a bikini, her skin glistening with tiny beads of water. He swallowed a sigh, banishing the vision regretfully as Inuyasha's face scrunched into a scowl, poorly disguising the flash of relief that passed over his eyes.

"You know what your problem is, jerkoff? You think your shit don't stink." Inuyasha whipped off his baseball cap and threw it on Sesshomaru's uncluttered mahogany desk, giving his ears a hearty shake. "It's gonna bite you in the ass, someday."

"Your wisdom never ceases to amaze," the taiyoukai remarked sarcastically, flicking the cap onto the floor with a claw.

"Whatever," he said, stomping over to the entertainment unit situated to the right of Sesshomaru's desk. "Take a look at this shit." He brandished a mini DVD before popping it into the player. The LCD panel hummed to life and the hanyou turned his back to it, leaning against the cabinet with a grimace.

Fast, heavy music pumped from the speakers as a busty bleach blonde wearing a few strips of sequins pouted at the camera then began to grind against a pole that extended from a narrow, raised stage to the ceiling. Lifting one stilettoed foot above her head she ran her tongue along her shin and blew a kiss from her hand.

"Very interesting, Inuyasha, but I hardly have time for-"

The hanyou turned to glare at the screen, and then cursed. "Damnit, that ain't it. But she's my newest girl: she's human, but she can bend like hose _and_ suck a golf ball through one!" He grinned, showing fang, and waggled his eyebrows at his brother. Unimpressed, Sesshomaru simply stared at him impassively, waiting for the intrusive pup to get down to business. Pressing the forward button on the DVD player, he continued, "I paired her up with Bunny – you know, the one that dances with her ears and tail showing?" He paused when the jerking, flashing frames finally showed what he wanted.

Sesshomaru knew Bunny well: a rabbit hanyou (hence the name) who had tried to show him her specialty on numerous occasions. At any other period in his life, he would have been more than happy to acquiesce, but since he'd realized that Kagome's time was at hand, he had been…distracted. He had Kagome on the brain and it just wouldn't do to shout one woman's name in bed while bedding another, even if the one he'd be fucking belonged to Inuyasha's harem.

Inuyasha had more of the old dog in him than Sesshomaru had ever expected. The shy, sexually frustrated boy had blossomed into a lusty, unabashed man-whore who collected women like some men collected motorcycles. He took in strays and hard-luck cases of all sorts, cleaned them up, sheltered them, and bedded the willing ones, sometimes several at a time.

Some of the girls moved on once they were back on their feet, not preferring the swinging sort of lifestyle. However, many of his girls lived with him, worked his clubs, and sampled other men at their whims. Sesshomaru had even heard rumors that a few of the kinky ones brought their men to special rooms in the clubs where Inuyasha would watch. He didn't have a taste for that himself, so had never inquired about it, but Sesshomaru wouldn't put it past the perverted half-breed.

"Oi, here it is," Inuyasha pushed play and resumed his lean against the television cabinet. An oily woman with sharp, narrow eyes and too many teeth smiled as she held up a small pot of cream. She wore a white belted dress that resembled a lab coat and entirely too much makeup. The picture flashed to the profile of a fifty-ish woman, her face worn and wrinkled, then to the other side of her profile. The heavy creases and dark circles under her eyes were gone, her skin smooth and flawless. Again, the strange woman filled the screen, flourishing the product to an off-camera audience.

Inuyasha pushed pause and crossed his arms over his chest with a triumphant grin. "Well?"

"You think I need wrinkle cream?" Sesshomaru drawled as he raised a perfect eyebrow, just to annoy him.

"No, dumbshit! It's _her_!"

"Though always questionable, your taste has declined in your old age," Sesshomaru stated, ignoring the insult out of habit. The woman's face did look familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. He hadn't laid her, that's for sure.

Snorting in disgust, Inuyasha rolled his eyes. "Her! That snake bitch! The one that attacked Sango's village! The one that had her scaly fingers in the Meiji Restoration. The one that makes the goop youkai use to cover their features. The one that's been after your cock for two centuries, fuck knows why." Inuyasha paused for a breath and stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans, scowling at his brother's apathetic visage.

"Jealous, half-breed?"

"Shut your pie-hole," Inuyasha snapped automatically. "She hasn't shown her ugly face like this in decades. Something's up."

"And how is this my concern?"

"You are such a fucking bastard, you know that?"

"I am sure you've mentioned it," Sesshomaru replied, smothering a superior smirk. Sakishima Suzio may be a minor thorn in the side of the Cardinal Lords, and had been since she'd reared her scaly head, but she was a lesser youkai and therefore of little consequence. It had almost been entertaining to watch the half-breed chase her through the centuries, only to have her wiggle out of his grasp at the last minute. Somehow, she had always been able to recruit the aid of humans, often aiding them in their quest for power in return. However, she had never challenged the power of the Cardinal Lords, so he left her to her games. Anyone who managed to piss off his brother for five hundred years couldn't be all bad.

Not to mention the fact that she alone knew the formula of the product most youkai and hanyou used to blend in with humanity. She had developed it, she produced it, and no one had succeeded in prying the secret from her cold-blooded fingers, though not for lack of trying. However, he had more interesting women to occupy his mind. What did he care if she decided to peddle her wares to humans and star in her own commercials?

The corner of his mouth twitched, his golden eyes alight with machinations. If the hanyou thought he was a bastard now, what would he think when Sesshomaru tracked down and snatched up Kagome? Whatever it was, it promised to be amusing.

Inuyasha's scowl darkened with suspicion and his ears pinned against his head momentarily. Jutting his chin out truculently, he stabbed a clawed finger at this half-brother. "Sakishima ain't the only one up to something," he growled.

"Indeed," Sesshomaru purred, not bothering to suppress the smirk. 'Let him squirm. He hasn't a clue. As a birthday surprise, I'll escort the little miko to one of his voyeur rooms so that he can watch me deflower her.' A glow of self-satisfaction, one that he hadn't realized that he'd missed, warmed his stomach. Truth be told, it wasn't the expression on his brother's face that he was imagining: it was that of the miko, contorted and flushed with passion.


	12. New Lover

Edited by thymecat, even thought she's got so many more important things to do! And she's looked at the last couple of chapters twice because I rewrite stuff so much! Thank you!

A/N: Before you all tar and feather me for this next chapter, please keep something in mind: heavy drinking can do strange, awful things to people. Some of you may understand exactly what I mean, and for those of you who don't, I hope you never, ever do. This chapter contains adult themes, including lemony content (though very much R rated, so I didn't edit it). Consider yourself warned.

Another thing: if all goes well, we close escrow on Wednesday. I've got the next chapter partially written, and I will do my best not to neglect it, but don't panic if the next post takes longer than a couple of weeks. I'm moving (hopefully), and it's a pain in the ass.

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi

Chapter 12 - …New Lover 

True to his word, the little restaurant to which Kouga led her did, indeed, have the most mouthwatering shrimp she'd ever had the pleasure to eat, complete with sinfully rich garlic-butter dipping sauce. They ate, drank, laughed, and talked as the sun set over the ocean, painting the water in shimmering pinks and oranges. As dusk fell, their waiter lit the little candle on their table, covering it in a simple glass globe. The raucous sounds of a band starting up in an open-air bar down the beach blended with the gentle crash of waves on sand and Kagome couldn't help but think that it was, hands down, the most romantic evening she had ever spent with a guy.

Kouga was charming and funny, attending to her every whim and seeing to a few of his own, and by nightfall, they were both thoroughly satiated and more than a little drunk. A warm, pleasant, muzzy haze had fallen over her, but Kagome was too happy to pay it any mind. After a drink or…how many was it now? Oh, well. After a _few_ drinks, it was remarkably easy to slip out of the stranglehold of tension and pain that had suffocated her these past two weeks and relax, bathing in the attentions of a man who obviously cared for her and wasn't just trying to get in her pants.

She was on a _date_, of a sort, and a _successful_ one at that.

She should have known better.

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine," Kouga waved his hand in response to her string of questions, narrowly missing knocking his drink over. "Shippo owns a chain of magic shops, Sesshomaru is in big business and Inuyasha owns a couple of…dance…clubs."

"Really?" she squealed and her grin threatened to split her face if it got any wider. She could just see her little kit surrounded by toys and jokes, wowing the children who wandered in with some cleverly disguised fox magic. She supposed that business was a better line of work for Sesshomaru than, say, killing people, which is what he'd been known for in the feudal era. As for her best friend… "Inuyasha learned to dance?"

"Ah…haha," Kouga laughed somewhat awkwardly, as if he were in on some private joke. "Not exactly…"

"Oh, Kouga, I'm so glad I found you!" Kagome gushed enthusiastically as she cut him off, her normally clear thoughts staggering from topic to topic. "I thought I'd lost everyone!"

Kouga sighed and leaned back in his chair, giving her a bleary, lopsided grin. His words were ever so slightly slurred, but Kagome was not of a mind to notice. "I was pretty shook up when I'd heard that you left for good. A time traveler, who would've thought?" He shook his head and chuckled, his long, unbound black hair flying in the ocean wind that swept through the restaurant's veranda.

"How did you…" it suddenly occurred to her that Kouga _must_ have known _something_ about her origins, seeing as he hadn't pissed himself when he'd found her. Eyes widening, she leaned forward in dumbfounded disbelief, "Inuyasha told you about the well?"

Kouga smirked and flexed his fingers, the claws that she knew were there blinking in and out of existence. He'd explained about "L'Esprit Cache", the product demons used to obfuscate their most prominent non-human features. Though with tattoos, contacts, and oddly colored hair dye becoming mainstream, fewer and fewer demons were bothering with it.

"Naw, the kitsune did."

Kagome's eyes immediately misted over and she was just about to ask after Shippo when Kouga's next statement tripped her train of thought.

"I just about killed that stupid half-breed when I heard what he did."

"Inuyasha? He didn't do anything. Well, anything he didn't normally do. Well," she corrected herself again and tapped a thoughtful finger against her chin. At least, that was what she meant to do: her finger missed her chin and ended up poking her neck. Kagome giggled and wagged the dissident finger at Kouga. "Actually, he and Sesshm-Sesshomaru got all pervy…"

She sighed wistfully, and without thought of her audience, said, "Sesshou was soooo hot..."

Kouga choked, spraying Irish coffee onto the white linen tablecloth. Cocking his head and leaning his arms on the table to stop his body from listing to the side, he sputtered, "You gotta be kidding me! You must've been furious about that bet! Isn't that why you left?"

Not sure that she was following the conversation, Kagome scratched her head after sipping her coffee. Or whatever it was. It had coffee in it somewhere, she supposed. She didn't bother to analyze why this fact didn't alarm her. "What bet?"

"You didn't know about the bet?" At Kagome's shake of the head, his eyes widened. "Oh, wow, those shit-heads."

"Who won?" Kagome asked as she tried to focus on Kouga's serious face. 'Right or left,' she wondered as his handsome mug wavered and split into two before blurring back together. 'What's in this coffee, anyway?'

"You tell me," Kouga groused, belatedly irritated by Kagome's comment about Sesshomaru's looks. He'd had a head start on the girl by several drinks, and the world was doing a slow, familiar spin around his head.

"Kouga, you're not making any sense," Kagome giggled at his pout.

"It was Sesshu-sessh, ah fuck. That mutt-faced lord got you first, didn't he?"

"Huh? Nobody 'got' me," Kagome giggled and waved her hands, almost falling out of her seat. "Though not for lack of trying," she nodded conspiratorially at Kouga's glower. "So, what bet?"

Somewhat mollified, Kouga smiled lopsidedly. "Those two shit-for-brains," Kouga said, giving up on difficult-to-pronounce names, "Bet that they could get you in bed first."

"What, at the same time?" Kagome asked, then blushed and burst out laughing. That had to be the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard. 'Kinda kinky, too' she mused, and since her inhibitions had taken the night off after the second drink, her mind's eye was filled with swirling shades of silver hair, stripes, puppy ears and two long, wet tongues. She squirmed a little in her seat and tried to give Kouga her attention.

"No! They made a bet," Kouga paused as if talking to a small child, "on who could lay you first. The loser had to keep his hands off."

"Huh?" Kagome asked, Kouga's words filtering through her pickled brain and souring the pleasant buzz, the silver hair in her imagination vanishing in wisps of smoke. That couldn't be right! But then again, it made a sick kind of sense when paired with their behavior and the strange thoughts she'd heard from the taiyoukai. Something about him winning…

Misunderstanding, Kouga reiterated one more time. "He who fucked you first, got to keep you." Moments later, at the pungent smell of salt water that didn't belong to the ocean, he thought that perhaps he could've been more sensitive.

"You mean, it was all a bet?" she asked through a shuddering breath, oblivious to the tears that had begun to trickle down her cheeks. "All that groping and kissing and…was just to win a bet? None of it was for me?"

Her world shattered, tumbling down around her in brightly colored shards of false dreams. Somewhere among all the lust and chemistry, and completely unbeknownst to her until now, she'd foolishly come to believe that maybe the taiyoukai, just a tiny bit, had come to care for her. After all, he hadn't hurt her all those times they'd gotten worked up but didn't finish, hadn't demanded that she finish him. Didn't that prove that he'd wanted her for something more than a quick screw? Perhaps it just showed that he _hadn't _wanted her, even for sex; she was just a way to show up his brother. And the fact that she cared so damn much about whether or not he'd wanted her revealed a much more terrifying truth to Kagome: that maybe she, just a tiny bit, had come to care for him.

To make matters worse, her best friend, on whom she'd had a crush for _four years,_ had only decided to pursue her to win a stinking bet! She would rather have caught him playing "hide the salami" with Kikyou than to know that she had gone from shard detector to trophy fuck!

"Aaaaargh! Those lousy, no good, flea-bitten, over-sexed mongrel _dogs_! Osuwari!" The volume of her voice rose steadily and her hands clenched and twisted in front of her face, her eyes blazing through the tears. "If I ever get my hands on them…"

Kouga stood from his seat and knocked the chair backward, indulging in an appreciative shiver at the raging inferno of feminine fury that was the woman before him. In an act of preservation of future progeny, his sac tightened and his balls crept into his body, just in case her wrath turned on him. Someone cleared her throat and Kouga cast a bleary glance over the rest of the restaurant. The startled, irritated stares of the other patrons met his and he shrugged sheepishly as he lurched to Kagome's side of the table.

"They didn't want _me_!" she wailed as her empty fingers tore imaginary silver hair from the scalps of her tormentors. Strong, masculine wolf arms enveloped her and she welcomed them gladly, latching onto the open ends of his shirt and sobbing into his chest. Shooting another apologetic glance around the restaurant, Kouga bundled her into one arm and tossed a generous wad of bills on the table with the other, escorting the nearly hysterical (and potentially violent – he remembered clearly what 'osuwari' did to a certain hanyou) girl out of the restaurant. Sweeping her up into his arms, he carried her down to the edge of the water. He found a place far enough from the restaurants and bonfires that there was no one in sight and settled them down in the sand, rocking her gently.

"Why doesn't anyone lo-o-ove me?" she cried against his shirt, twisting her fingers in the fabric. She was creating a large wet spot on his unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt but he didn't mind it in the least.

Kouga kissed her hair and cuddled her against him. Hadn't he always dreamed of holding her? Comforting her in times of need? Soothing away her tears and showing her just how much she meant to him? She'd never given him the chance before and he sure as hell wouldn't let this one pass him by. "_I_ love you, Kagome. I always have."

"But you m-married Ayam-me!" Weeping harshly, she struggled the words out between wrenching sobs. His arms felt so good! She could just burrow into his chest and live there, all safe and protected. Was this what it was to be loved? Why didn't she love him back? At that moment, she could care less about who she did and didn't love. She didn't even _know_ whom she loved. But she _felt_ loved and she submitted to it, wallowed in it, wrapped herself in it like a security blanket.

Kouga stroked her hair and shushed her, getting a little misty-eyed himself. "Only because you wouldn't have me. The wolf tribes needed a strong leader to unify them, and besides…I did make that promise." He grimaced, remembering the betrothal he'd made to a young wolf demoness, and then denied when she'd come down the mountain to claim him.

Kagome's crying wound down to a steady flow of tears as she wrapped her arms around his waist. To be held by someone as he professed his love for her! She'd dreamt of moments like this, though she hadn't been blubbering in those fantasies and the man holding her had silver hair, but to her intoxicated, fuzzy brain, those were mere trivialities. Finally, she was cherished, and it was enough at that moment. Sniffling quietly, she asked, "Did you love her?"

Kissing the top of her head as he tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, he replied, "Yeah, as much as I could. I still miss her, even though it's been years since she died, but…"

"I'm so sorry, Kouga," Kagome whispered and tilted her head back to gaze unfocusedly into his eyes.

Kouga shook his head, "She wasn't you. And I would never have hurt you like those two knuckle-dragging dogs." His breath caught in his throat as she smiled up at him. The face of the woman of his dreams was so close, and though her eyes were red, puffy and shimmering with tears, she was more beautiful than he'd remembered.

At the back of Kouga's conscience, he knew that he should have resisted. They were both well past drunk and Kagome was a vulnerable wreck. However, good judgment does not reign supreme in the inebriated mind. Her lost expression and swollen, parted lips called to him and without a second thought, he cupped her cheek and claimed them, for the first time kissing the woman who had haunted him throughout the centuries. She tasted of rum, whiskey, vodka and garlic, but was oh, so delicious.

Kagome let him explore her mouth and tried to return the kiss with numb, clumsy lips; the part of her that should have been protesting her actions was snoring in the bushes. He tasted wrong, smelled wrong; the wrong hands pushed up her shirt to fondle her breasts through her bra, but she couldn't find in it in herself to care. The rough caresses seemed to sooth a part of her aching soul, and so what if she felt even colder below that layer of tepid water?

She didn't notice that her shirt had been removed and that she was lying down until rough sand scratched her back, the skin oddly insensitive as she shifted over it. Her bra was pushed over her breasts uncomfortably, the elastic and underwire cutting into soft tissue as Kouga took a nipple into his mouth and bit down hard enough to make her jerk in pleasure. Her hands were fisted in his hair, she realized, holding his head to her body. She watched, detached, as her hands released his hair to run themselves over his tanned, muscled shoulders, pretty sure that she had been the one to remove his shirt.

'What am I doing?' she wondered vaguely, and then a wad of sand became lodged under the clasp of her bra and distracted her muddled brain.

Squirming until she could twist her arms under her back, she unlatched the tight thing, forcing her breast further into Kouga's mouth and earning a rumbling growl of approval. He switched his attentions from one nipple to the other, running a knee between her legs to rest against her panties. Obligingly and with only a half-hearted, unformed second thought, Kagome bent her knees and spread her legs, groaning as he pressed against her, igniting a wanton, tingling ache.

The narrow swath of dark hair that extended from his navel to his swim trunks seemed to point the way and her fingers agreeably followed, finding a nylon drawstring and pulling free a careless slipknot. A mouth descended on her, scraping fangs against her lips as she tugged at the waistband of the shorts. Nipping a path of kisses across her cheek and to her ear, he flicked the lobe with the tip of his tongue before biting it gently. Kagome gasped and turned her head to escape the tickle, dragging her ear out of his teeth, only to have him press his lips against hers once more. Her hands finally completed their mission, pushing his shorts down as far down as she could reach, and trailed their way up the backs of his thighs and over his hard buttocks.

Kouga growled into her mouth, the animalistic sound exciting instead of scary as he hooked one claw in her panties and tore through the fabric at her hip. His other hand kept him propped above her, hovering just far enough to let her undress him, but low enough to graze her nipples with his chest.

"Kagome," he whispered against her lips, wriggling fingers through the sand beneath her ass and giving the flesh a firm squeeze, "you don't know how much I've wanted this, how long I've waited…"

Kagome shifted her hips, his knee against her now bare crotch producing a delightful friction in which she wanted to drown.

"I want…" she mumbled, and then gasped when his knee left its happy home, to be replaced by something much more pointed and direct.

"I love you, Kagome." Kouga kissed her hard, and Kagome's eyes widened as the more rational part of her brain gave her a belated nudge.

'Wait a second…'

And then he was inside her, stretching and filling her in a sensation that was wholly alien and not entirely pleasant. She couldn't help a pained, surprised cry, even when he bumped against the spot that still surged with unfulfilled want. He hooked an arm behind her neck, holding her steady as he moved over her, jouncing her with each quick thrust. Grasping his shoulders, she clung to him as he pushed into her, his pace steady as he grunted into her ear. It chafed a little, as if she should be wetter than she was, and all the jarring was beginning to upset her stomach.

'Is this it?' she wondered distractedly between bounces, the full reality of the situation still a distorted image in funhouse mirror. 'Is this what all the fuss is about?' Her stomach gave a nasty lurch as the stars reeled giddily above her. 'I hope he finishes soon 'cause I think I'm gonna…' Saliva flooded her mouth and she grimaced, swallowing it down. "Kouga…"

Abruptly, his rhythm became uneven and hurried, his claws tensing to prick the skin of her shoulder. Baring his teeth in a grimace, he stopped pounding into her with one final, rough thrust and shuddered between her legs. "Love you, Kagome!" he panted against her hair.

Her stomach twisted as her mouth filled with saliva again, and she pushed against his chest. "Kouga!"

He blinked at her, confused, and she clamped her jaw shut, trying not to spew on the sweaty chest above her. Eyes widening, he got the picture and pulled out, flipping her onto her knees and gathering her hair into his fist in one slightly fumbled movement. Kagome exploded a moment later, her stomach expelling its contents in a hot, putrid, projectile stream. Over and over, her gut clenched and her body heaved until she felt hollow and shaky. Tears streamed down her face and her nose leaked, her head swam dizzily and the only thing keeping her upright was Kouga's arm under her bare breasts. He was leaning a flushed cheek between her shoulder blades, murmuring inane things that were probably meant to be comforting, but Kagome was oblivious to everything but her clenching, rebellious stomach.

Finally, her heaving stopped and she went limp against his arm, panting as the world swam around her. She was so very tired; she just wanted to sleep. Her eyes drifted shut even as she was lifted off of the ground and cool, salty water was splashed over her face.

"Go to sleep, Kagome, I've got you," Kouga told her and, exhausted and drunk, she did just that.

XxxxxxxX

The dark, sleeping city breathed around him in softly exhaled columns of steam that rose from manholes in the street, carrying the stench of human waste and pollution past his sensitive nose. Sesshomaru ignored it, the tiny, transient wrinkles that creased his nose appearing unconsciously, and then smoothing as if they'd never existed. His silent footsteps carried him through pools of lamplight more brilliant than the moon that was sliced by wires slung from pole to pole, his ears twitched as they caught the sounds of chattering televisions, human voices risen in anger, the distant crack of a car backfiring. He didn't glance up as a motorcycle roared by, shaking the air with artificial thunder and dispersing the clouds, only to have them reform a moment later, showing no trace of passage. Shoving his hands further into the pockets of his jeans and hunching his shoulders slightly against the clammy feel of the night against his bare arms and face, he tried to convince his feet that their wandering was futile.

He was supposed to be tucked into a velvet-lined booth with a martini in one hand and a female in the other, wearing an expensive silk suit and Italian leather shoes, not walking the streets of an old part of Tokyo in jeans and a white tee shirt, woefully empty-handed.

His fingers tensed in his pockets, curling slightly against the thick denim. It wasn't that he _wanted_ to be in that booth, per se, but he didn't like this aimless roaming, either. It was at these dark hours of the morning when weariness settled into his bones and seething restlessness stirred in the pit of his stomach. Most nights, he was able to ignore it and bury himself in _something_, whether it be female or paperwork (and just the latter for the past few years, his mind supplied bitterly), but on nights like these, when his feet refused to listen and his thoughts wound themselves into self-deprecating knots, that he had the distinct impression that he was fooling himself. How, he wasn't quite sure, but he was uneasy that the answer was within easy grasping range if only he knew where to reach, and it would be gallingly, embarrassingly clear once found.

The sharp stinging scent of burnt wood, melted plastic and oxidized metal, mixed with the pungent aroma of fresh sawdust teased away the stench of the city and he blinked slowly, finally realizing to where his feet had led him. They were tracking _her_.

Sesshomaru huffed; the only visible sign a slight flaring of his nostrils. For some reason, he wasn't surprised; it seemed that even when he wasn't thinking about her, he was still _thinking_ about her. He tried to be annoyed but only managed a curl of anticipation that maybe tonight would be the night he found her…and _oh_, what he'd do with her...

His arms twitched as if aching to embrace her and he suddenly found himself wishing that he'd brought along his little treasure, the absence of her scent sending a deep, hot blade of yearning sliding through his gut. Then again, his well-fitted jeans were already beginning to feel a bit snug and he didn't have much more room to _grow_. He much preferred his silk hakama: loose, soft and not inclined to catch sensitive male skin between metal teeth.

Was she close, lying awake and wondering what had become of him, perhaps waiting for him to find her? Or was she planning her next excursion through the well, still unaware of his interest? Was she even in the present? Could she be five hundred years in the past, pressing her soft flushed body against his as he explored the sweet depths of her mouth?

His shoulders tightened and tensed, straining his white tee shirt against the muscles of his chest. 'This is ridiculous,' he thought as he came to a sudden halt on the sidewalk. 'I am _not _jealous of myself.'

_Why_ had he let her disappear into the well and out of his life? Why had he not dragged her ass back out of the dank pit when he'd sensed the stirring of magic, or tried the portal himself? Why had he let her fly away on the firecat instead of knocking the beast out of the sky and flying away with her himself? Why had he made that stupid, petty bet in the first place? At the first scent of his brother, he should have simply stolen her away to woo in her peace and solitude.

His glowing golden eyes narrowed in irritation. To his chagrin, he was becoming regretful and maudlin. 'I do not _miss_ the miko.' The scent of a recent fire simply reminded him of Rin. That was all.

Before he knew it, his traitorous feet were moving again, following the same path that his Miko Receiver had led him last time. With the slightest shrug of resignation, he let his feet guide him, trying to stuff the growing eagerness into a dusty corner of his mind and failing utterly. His steps quickened without his consent until he found himself flying up a long flight of steps in a wholly undignified manner, passing under a blackened wooden tori and into a shrine compound.

The scorched earth was littered with piles of freshly cut lumber and rutted with deep tire tracks that led to and from a half-gutted house. Newly built skeletons of walls stood in holes of the house, the clean, golden wood in stark contrast against the sooty grime of the walls still standing. His eyes narrowed as they traced the seams between creation and destruction, life and death. Idly, he wondered if the inhabitants of this ruined shrine had survived the scorching tongue of flame that had claimed their home. If so, they would be luckier than many. They would be luckier than his Rin.

It had been a hot, dry, gusty evening and he had left camp to escape her hopeful, beckoning eyes. He couldn't have done _that_ with Rin, no matter how much she may have wanted it. Not Rin, who he'd raised from little more than a pup. He wasn't even sure that she had known what she'd wanted, other than to please him. So, he'd fled for both of their sakes, returning only when the heavy scent of smoke had permeated the air. Jaken had survived the wildfire that the wind had stirred from their little campfire, but only barely so, his blackened, leathery hide a testament to his efforts to help Rin. That night, Sesshomaru had learned a hard lesson in human frailty and the limits of Tenseiga's power.

Together, they'd buried her amongst the flowers she had so loved. Each bobbing white blossom stared at him with a single yellow eye, condemning him for failing to protect one human girl. An inquisitive, happy, silly, _noisy_ girl. _His_ girl. Without a word, Jaken had laid the Staff of Two heads over the freshly turned earth and tottered off, his small back bent under grief and guilt. Sesshomaru had let him go.

He shook his head, his long braid twisting against his back as he banished the memory. What was wrong with him tonight? He was not usually prone to fits of melancholy. He should have gone out like he'd originally planned: at least then he'd have more than his own fruitless thoughts to keep him company.

Snorting, he clenched his hands in his pockets. 'This Sesshomaru is _not_ lonely.' He seriously needed to get laid. Which brought him back to the object of his search.

Turning back toward the steps leading out of the shrine, he stopped as movement caught his eye. Abandoning thoughts of leaving for this new curiosity, he carefully trod the uneven ground to the yellow strips of police tape that fluttered from an enormous, ancient tree. Miraculously untouched, despite its proximity to the burned out remains of a shack, it rose tall and proud, stretching thick branches toward the starless night sky. An oddly shaped scar, wide in the middle and pointed on the top and bottom, marred the trunk. Pulling a hand out of his pocket, he ran his fingertips over the blemish, touching a small hole in the upper right corner.

A pulse of recognition coursed through him and he spun toward the scattering of charcoal and debris that had once been a small structure. His eyes were drawn to the center, where the pile thinned out and the longer boards bowed as if there were nothing underneath them. Picking his way over another line of slack police tape and through the charred, splintered remains of what may have been a short staircase, he stopped short of a gaping hole in the earth, almost obscured by soggy, blackened wood. A flood of adrenaline surged through his body, sending his blood screaming through his veins and his heart thrashing frantically against the inside of his chest.

It was an old well.

XxxxxxxX

Morning dawned harsh and cruel against her eyelids, triggering a pounding in her head that twisted her stomach and she groaned, rolling out of bed and onto unsteady feet. Glancing frantically around unfamiliar surroundings, she had enough time to realize that she was in a studio apartment and that the bathroom was to her right before her gut reminded her that hurlage was immanent. She'd made use of the toilet, spitting acrid bile out of her mouth, and rinsed her mouth and face in the sink before she realized that she was quite naked.

"How's my woman?" a raspy male voice asked and Kouga grinned at her from the mirror over the sink as he wrapped his arms around her middle.

'Oh kami,' Kagome swore silently through the throbbing in her temples. Something undeniably masculine was pressed against her backside, and it was just as unclothed as she was. 'Oh, no kami. I didn't.' All evidence to the contrary, from the thing resting between her cheeks to the stickiness on her thighs to the soreness between her legs, not to mention her own hazy, warped memories of sand and touching and joined bodies, pointed to the very likely conclusion that she, in fact, had.

"Um, I think I'd like a shower…" His grin widened and he planted a kiss on her shoulder. "Alone," she added quickly.

"Oh," he said as his face fell, but his disappointment didn't last for long. "Yeah, I bet you feel pretty shitty. I'll get you some towels and a robe and start some breakfast." At her peaked, horrified look, he corrected himself. "Well, maybe no breakfast. Just holler if you need anything!" With another kiss to her collarbone, he all but bounced out of the bathroom.

"Stupid youkai and their metabolisms," she grumbled as she closed the door behind him. "I feel like I was the ball in a game of soccer and he is downright chipper. I _know_ he had more to drink than I did." She frowned at the sallow, drawn face reflected in the mirror. 'I bet it has something to do with getting laid.'

At the reminder of bets and sex, the kind she'd wanted and the kind she'd just had, her heart constricted in her chest painfully. Pressing the back of her hand to her mouth, she fiddled with the tap until she got a hot spray of water in Kouga's tiny shower, and then let loose the floodgate of tears. Steam rose around her in humid clouds as the water scalded her back and dripped into her eyes, washing away the proof of her regret.

Hugging herself tightly, she cried as silently as she could. She wasn't in love with Kouga; she wasn't even in lust with him. For days, she'd resisted the advances of Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, one who she'd loved, the other she'd wanted, and after a few drinks with Kouga, she let him fuck her in the sand? 'What's wrong with me?'

At least now she knew exactly where she stood in the hearts of both inuyoukai: absolutely nowhere. She'd been a piece of ass, nothing more than a conquest. She didn't even want to find them, the disgusting perverts. Well, yes she did, but how dare they treat her like a piece of property to be bought and sold and _won_! In any case, Kouga loved her and had told her so, many times, even when he hadn't been taking her maidenhead. It didn't excuse her promiscuous behavior, but it made her feel a tad justified.

Well, he'd _said_ that he loved her but how could she really know without a Wolf Decoder? On the flip side, how could she even depend on the stupid things when she had missed such an obvious bit of information from the taiyoukai's head? Unconsciously, her left thumb stroked the back of her right ring finger, feeling for the embossed plastic disc that she suddenly missed.

"Kagome?" Kouga poked his head around the shower curtain and gazed at her with concerned, affectionate blue eyes. "I thought I smelled tears."

"No, I'm fine," Kagome said quickly, startled out of her thoughts, and then covered her breasts with her arms. "Kouga!" she protested, trying to tug the shower curtain shut over his face. At least he wasn't leering at her.

"What? You're my woman now, in every sense of the word." This time, he did leer at her, his eyes lingering over the water that slid around her pubes. Kagome blushed and glowered at him. "I know it probably wasn't that great last night, you being sick and all, but I promise it'll get better!"

'What makes him think it will ever happen again?' she wondered in utter amazement at his audacity. "Kouga," she started, but he plunged ahead, cutting her off.

"And don't worry! I'll marry you and make it ligit. I know humans are into that stuff."

"But Kouga-"

"No need to thank me, Kagome! Anything for my woman." He grinned and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, disappearing with a flick of his dark ponytail.

'I'm never going to drink like that again,' Kagome vowed silently. She had heard that alcohol affected one's judgment and inhibitions, but she'd never really understood what that had meant. If they had been in Vegas, she would probably be married to the thick-skulled wolf already. 'Thank the kami for small miracles,' she thought sarcastically. 'I suppose I don't have to worry about him not calling.'

The thought didn't comfort her.

After scrubbing at her face and privates, wincing at the soreness that sharpened last night into frightening clarity, she shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. Kouga had left her two fluffy towels and an enormous white bathrobe; one of his own, she was sure. She twisted her hair into one of the towels and shrugged into the robe, tying the oversized garment firmly about her waist. With a deep breath and some serious mental rallying, Kagome opened the bathroom door and stepped into the main room of the apartment.

She had to admit that it was more than a few steps above his wolf den of old. One wall was floor to ceiling windows with several French doors that opened onto a long balcony. Beyond it, below a one-story drop, the sand stretched into the ocean. On any other day, she would have sighed in bliss, but this morning, the glare of the sun off the water shot needles into her brain. Shading her eyes, she glanced over at the rumpled bed where they had obviously been sleeping.

'I slept with a man. I slept with _Kouga_.' She shivered and looked away from the bed. 'Does that make me a tramp or a normal woman?'

Padding over the hardwood floor of the spacious studio apartment, she found Kouga bustling around a tiny, bare kitchen. Her stomach rolled uncomfortably at the smell of coffee and she switched to breathing through her mouth without being too conspicuous about it.

"Sorry, Kagome, I don't have much in the way of food. This is just my beach pad-"

"I'm really not that hungry," she reaffirmed, waving away a package of sausage that he pulled from the fridge. 'I thought we agreed no breakfast?'

"I won't let my woman starve," Kouga frowned at her, popping a couple of pieces of bread into the toaster. "You puked your guts out last night, so you need to eat. You're too thin, anyway."

'That is going to get old, fast,' she thought, but her head was pounding and she was too tired, physically and emotionally, to put up much of a fight. She sat at the small kitchen table and dropped her face in her hands. "Kouga, I need to go home so that my mom doesn't worry." 'Any more than she already is,' Kagome added silently, 'and for good reason.'

Kouga plopped a couple of aspirin, a glass of water, and two pieces of buttered toast in front of her, and she leaned back, eyeing it as she tried to determine whether or not her stomach would accept it. When it didn't protest violently, she swallowed the aspirin and nibbled a corner of a piece of toast, trying to return his relieved smile. "If you could give me my clothes and show me where the bus stop is…"

Kouga snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "My woman isn't taking the bus. I'll drive you. I should meet my future mother-in-law, anyway."

"That isn't necessary, really, I can-"

"Won't hear of it."

Sighing, Kagome massaged her pounding temples. "Kouga, last night was…"

"The best night of my life! So far…" he shot her a suggestive grin that made her stomach cramp.

'Ew, I almost barfed on him. It couldn't have been _that_ good. Then again, maybe he meant the company instead of the sex?' She blinked and took an absent bite of toast. 'I can't believe I had sex with Kouga.'

"How's your stomach? Feeling better?" he asked when it was apparent that Kagome was lost in her own thoughts. She probably couldn't believe her good fortune; he knew _he_ sure couldn't. Sure, over the centuries he'd had countless fantasies of finding her, proclaiming his love, and having her fall into his arms. He would erase all thoughts of those filthy, crass dogs from her mind with a night of mind-blowing passion and then live the rest of his life as the happiest wolf on the planet with his lovely mate by his side. Granted, events hadn't unfolded _quite_ like he'd imagined: her chunks had blown instead of her mind. In fact, he was pretty sure he hadn't pleased her like a mate should, an injustice he would have to rectify sooner rather than later. It was probably the fault of the alcohol. With a frown, he said, "I don't think I'll let my woman drink so much again."

'Say it, Kagome. Say, "I'm not your woman,"' she scolded herself. Why couldn't she lash out at the wolf like she had Inuyasha and Sesshomaru? Put him in his place with a few barbed comments and stop this silliness before it got any worse?

Just as with Hojo, she'd never been able to come right out and break his heart. She'd blushed and giggled when the wolf demon held her hands and professed his love, sometimes rolling her eyes. Of course, she'd never gone and slept with Hojo, so the situations weren't _quite_ the same…

"Kouga, I'm not, I mean, we're not…"

"You _are_. _We _are. Any youkai could smell it," he pointed out matter-of-factly.

Crap. Maybe this was what Sango had been trying to tell her when she'd mentioned differences in demon and human traditions all those days…centuries…ago. 'Don't think about it,' Kagome pushed the thought away and took another bite of toast, waiting for her voice to steady. "But-"

"Eat up, Kagome, and I'll get your clothes," he left her with a wide grin and Kagome resignedly munched on her toast. Once she felt a bit better, she would talk some sense into the pushy wolf. One night in the sack (or sand) did not a fiancé make.

She hadn't even _enjoyed_ it.

A/N: Remember - if you kill me now, I won't be able to finish the story.


	13. Wolf

Edited by thymecat

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

A/N: Thanks to all of you who supported what I was trying to do with the previous chapter. You are the only reason this chapter was finished. Of course, the 1st in Best OC and Best Serial and the 2nd in Best Alt Pairing helped, too…thought by that time, I was pretty much done, anyway.

Chapter 13 – Wolf 

"Kagome, it's for you!" Souta leaned through the doorway that separated the kitchen from the living room and waggled the phone handset at her.

Kagome kept her nose in her book and her ass planted firmly on the couch. She wasn't up to socializing at the moment. The television squawked quietly across the room, providing white noise to drown out the chatter of her mother, aunt and grandfather in the kitchen. Normally, it wouldn't have bothered her, but her name had come up too many times for her comfort. Unfortunately, the commercial now airing was just as irritating, featuring a slick, angular woman selling some sort of miracle face cream to a rapt audience. At any moment, she expected a forked tongue to flick out of her mouth or her jaw to unhinge as she tried to swallow her assistant whole. Kagome shuddered and fished the remote out of the couch cushions, changing the channel as she grunted, "Who is it?"

After a pause, Souta said hesitantly, "It's your…fiancé?"

Stereo feminine gasps and a raspy wheeze resounded from the kitchen and Kagome flinched. She'd been lucky when Kouga had dropped her off at her aunt's house that no one had been home: they had been out looking for her. Hence, when they'd returned to find her curled up on the couch, still nursing a hangover, she'd been able to blow off her 'adventure' with Kouga, saying that she'd hooked up with an old friend while at the beach and stayed the night. It was the truth, with only a few glaring omissions.

Yes, she should've called. Yes, she realized that they had been worried about her. No, she would never do it again. She was so, so sorry. Oh, was she sorry. In fact, she couldn't remember feeling more disappointed in herself than she had when she'd woken up with a hangover in Kouga's bed, not including the moment she realized that she'd just shattered a sacred, powerful jewel entrusted to her care. Breaking the jewel had been purely accidental, a horrible consequence of her best intentions. But her night with Kouga? She should've known better.

She didn't blame Kouga for what had happened: she had been a willing participant. Had he taken advantage of the situation? Quite possibly, but she had let him. She was as guilty as he was. Ultimately, what was done was done, and all she could do was recover with as much grace and dignity as she could muster.

Her first step on the road to recovery had been to withhold her aunt's phone number from him, saying that they had a problem with the line. Apparently, he was more resourceful than she'd expected.

"You never told me that Kagome has a fiancé!" her aunt chastised her mother, who laughed nervously.

"Yes, well…" her mother tittered as if it had simply slipped her mind.

Souta wiggled the handset at her again and mouthed, 'What the fuck?'

"It's a private joke!" Kagome hollered from the couch at the two clucking hens in the kitchen before her grandfather could chime in with a potentially damning excuse. She could see it now: the old coot shaking his head sadly as he explained, _"Our Kagome has a bad case of Weddingus Shotgunus. Poor, poor girl. We were all very shocked…"_ Kagome winced and groaned, pushing that thought away as counter productive and more than a little disturbing.

"I better take that," she told her brother and slouched off the couch, taking the handset as if it were a snapping ferret about to bite her. Damn Kouga and his arrogant, possessive, presumptive attitude. On Sesshomaru, it had been sexy, if annoying, but on Kouga, there was nothing attractive about it. And now she had some serious explaining to do with her mother. She gave the handset a heartfelt scowl, then held it to her ear. "Hello?"

"How's my woman?"

Even though she expected it, Kouga's boisterous voice grated on her nerves. An acidic comment dissolved on her tongue, politeness winning out, and she said, "I'm fine Kouga. But why did you tell my brother that you're my fiancé?"

"'Cause I am!" Kouga exclaimed without missing a beat. Kagome rolled her eyes and wandered back to the couch, sprawling across the plump cushions in an undignified flop. "I told you I'd marry you."

"But I never said that I'd marry you!"

"Don't sweat the details, love. I'm sorry I haven't been by to see you, yet. I was taking care of something. But I promise to make it up to you!"

"No, Kouga, that's okay." How on earth could one wolf be so dense?

"I'll pick you up tonight at eight! Wear something nice."

Exasperation got the better of her and she snapped, "Kouga, I said no."

"What?"

Guilt shot through her at the broken, disbelieving sound of his voice and she almost quailed from her firm stance. She hated hurting a friend's feelings, and obnoxious as he could be, he was still a friend that she thought she'd lost forever. Could she even call him a friend after what they had done? Boyfriend, lover, her man, or what? Stifling a groan, she smacked the back of her head into the plush couch cushion. She was so damned confused and ashamed that it made her head hurt all over again.

"I…I've got other plans..." she winced at the lameness of her excuse. At least she hadn't told him that she was washing her hair. He might have insisted on helping.

"How about tomorrow night?" the self-confidence crept back into his tone and Kagome sighed heavily. Perhaps male demons were too mentally challenged to take a hint. Maybe their brains didn't reside in their heads at all?

"I'll, um…I'll think about it. I'm sorry, Kouga, I gotta go." She hung up and flung an arm over her eyes, letting the other dangle off the side of the couch. 'Way to be strong, Kagome.'

"Kagome."

Souta leaned against the doorway, crossing his arms over his chest, and gave her a piercing stare; the seriousness in his eyes that of a matured man. 'Where did he get that look?' Kagome wondered as she peered at him from under her arm. 'Who took my little brother?'

"What?" she asked defensively, trying not to fidget under his gaze.

"You met a friend at the beach, huh?"

"I met Kouga," she said simply.

Her brother nodded, the corner of his mouth quirking and his eyes softening. "Still has the hots for you?"

Kagome sighed and let the phone slide out of her hand to land on the carpet with a small thump. "You could say that."

"Is it such a bad thing?" The question took Kagome by surprise, but before she could reply, he continued, "I heard you crying over Inuyasha more times than I can count. Did Kouga ever hurt you?"

He had a point. Kouga had never called her foul names or pointed out her flaws: quite the opposite, he had always been complimentary, sometimes to the point of embarrassing her. Even when he'd asked her permission to court Ayame, he'd been regretful, barely able to meet her eye-to-eye and close to having his tail tucked between his legs as she could recall. She shook her head to clear away the memory, "Souta, I'm not in love with Kouga."

"Maybe you just haven't given him a chance," he told her as he walked into the living room and waved a small piece of paper under her nose, then set it on the end table. At her inquisitive glance, he said, "Caller ID," and winked.

Giving her another pointed look, he sauntered out of the room and Kagome was again struck by the changes in her brother. He was growing up and she hadn't noticed. He was also making sense, whether she liked it or not. She'd never considered Kouga as a romantic interest because she'd been too busy pining after Inuyasha and now, Sesshomaru.

Kagome blinked and frowned, pulling the inside of her cheek between teeth and nibbling it. 'I am _not_ pining for Sesshomaru,' she corrected herself. 'He wanted me, I wanted him, and that's as far as it went. Hell, I don't even know if he wanted _me_; he could've just wanted to win that stupid bet!'

Whereas Kouga had always been free with his feelings and had remained true until he'd given up hope. Now, he still wanted her, despite all of her rejections! So, she was attracted to guys who treated her like crap and pushed away the ones that adored her. That couldn't be healthy. Maybe Souta was right.

'But I don't love Kouga!'

Growling a frustrated sound at the back of her throat as her thoughts spiraled in unproductive circles, she hit her head against the couch again. She knew from experience that Kouga was obstinate and determined: he wasn't going to give up. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to go on this date and tell him once and for all that she was neither his woman nor anything else he had assumed. Their night together had been a mistake and they should just forget it had ever happened. They were _friends_. Without benefits. Right.

And maybe if she hung out with Kouga (and stayed away from alcohol), she could find out where her other friends were. She hadn't asked for details while they were on their first date, and though she was still furious at the dogs for being such insufferable asses, she couldn't deny that she missed them. Inuyasha and Shippo, anyway. Sesshomaru could go to hell…no, she missed him, too. Damn it all.

'Would it hurt to give Kouga a chance? But Sesshomaru…'

She plucked the phone off of the floor, brushing her thumb over the buttons as she debated with herself. Reason urged her to go on the date to see if she could love the man who professed to love her, yet her heart insisted that she stay on the couch and read romance novels, picturing the hero with silver-white hair and a striped…wrist.

She'd always listened to her heart and look where it got her: heart_broken_. Finally, she sat up straight and pushed the "talk" button, grabbing Kouga's phone number off of the end table.

'I'll go, but just as his friend.' She nodded sharply, desperately hoping that she was doing the right thing. 'This is me not pining.'

XxxxxxX

Inuyasha glared at the smug, handsome face of his one-time rival. The wimpy wolf was way too pleased with himself.

To make matters worse, he smelled Kagome again. Ever since that phantom whiff in his brother's office, the girl had plagued his mind. For the past several nights, he'd woken, sweaty and disheveled, from dreams in which he'd been showing her just how much his technique had improved since their last fumbled kiss.

No one had known why the well had closed up all those years ago after it had stolen away its passenger. The old hag, Kaede, had only been able to determine that the magic of the well was "greatly diminished". In other words, it was fucking broken, a fact that Inuyasha had learned the hard way when he'd dived head first into it, nearly cracking his skull open. He'd been devastated, near frantic with worry and for the first time in his life, hadn't given two farts if anyone knew it.

Languishing around the village in the dankest funk he'd ever floundered, he'd ended up at Kikyou's desecrated grave and had received another near fatal blow: the grave was once again whole. Sure, the crone had fixed it up to look like a witch had never pulled Kikyou's bones out of it, but it had never _felt_ complete. The moment he'd stepped up to the small alter, he'd known that Kikyou was as out of reach as Kagome. She'd left him behind and without a word.

If not for a well-timed beating by a thick spear (almost too well-timed, as if Akago had been stalking him, though she'd never admitted to it), he would have torn up the grave in a mind-consuming rage. Probably the village along with it. Even five hundred years later, he could still remember the fire that had kindled in his veins, burning away his heartache, pain, and love until nothing but fury was left. He owed Akago his soul…and a few good knots on the head. He hadn't paid up. Instead, he'd withdrawn.

Two long years had passed as he sat in Goshinbuko, staring at the well and willing it to erupt in blue light, spewing forth a girl whose radiant smile he only now realized had been the sun around which he'd orbited. He'd grown scrawny and weak, not leaving his watch to answer the pleas of his friends, the crying of Kagome's kit, or his own grumbling stomach. The colors of the forest had dulled, the sounds had grated on his ears, and the sunsets that she'd loved had become ugly, garish reminders of his failure. Of what, he didn't know, but somehow, this was all his fault. It was what he deserved as a stain, an abomination, a hanyou.

In the pale, dim light of a chilly dawn, a familiar, unwelcome scent, laced with the faintest trace of soot, had drifted across his nose. He would have ignored him, just as he had all the others, if not for the heavy sense of grief that had surrounded him. He hadn't known that his brother could _feel_ sorrow.

"_This behavior is unbecoming of a son of Inu no Taisho."_

_His ears twitched to catch Sesshomaru's words but his eyes remained trained on the well. He didn't bother gracing that statement with a response. Why would he? What was the bastard doing here, anyway?_

"_There is nothing here for you."_

'_As if I haven't noticed that already.' The asshole had a true talent for stating the obvious. Inuyasha closed his eyes and flattened his ears, twisting his grip on the battered sheath of Tetsusaiga. _

"_Brother," Sesshomaru stated, the word so lacking in disdain that Inuyasha opened a surprised eye. "The undead priestess…"_

_The other eye popped open and two murky, miserable pools of amber glared down at the taiyoukai. His normally pristine kimono was smudged with gray ash and his shining mane of hair was ragged and shorter by several inches. But it wasn't his brother's disheveled appearance that so unnerved him: it was the pinching at the corners of his mouth, the puffy, darkened bags under his eyes, the slight red that rimmed both bottom lids._

"_She said: 'Tell him I did, too.'"_

"_The fuck does that mean?" The question popped out, in spite of himself. "Hey, when did you talk to Kikyou?" For the first time in two years, he launched out of the tree to land awkwardly on the grass, his muscles burning in protest and his joints popping in a raucous symphony. He staggered, catching himself on Tetsusaiga as if it were a crutch, and waited for a scathing insult. Instead, Sesshomaru shrugged, the barest tilt of one of his shoulders._

"_She was _your_ woman," he said as if that explained everything and ignored the second question. "She said you must move on."_

_With a slow, seemingly tired, blink, the taiyoukai turned his back on him to walk into the woods, his steady gait slower than Inuyasha remembered._

'_Move on? Did she know something about the well?' Stumbling forward slowly, Inuyasha's eyes roved over the well as he puzzled his deceased love's words. Knowing it was futile, he circled it anyway, running clawed fingers over the worn, gray wood that he had memorized, and searching for any clue he may have missed during his long watch. The well remained stoically silent, determined to keep its secrets._

"_I did, too," he murmured under his breath, turning the words over in his mind. He smiled wryly when realization finally hit him and shook his head sadly. "I loved you, Kikyou. I'm glad you knew it. I just wish…"_

_But wishing was pointless and he finally felt up to doing something other than sulking in a tree. Somehow, knowing that Kikyou had passed on with love in her heart freed his own from the mantle of sorrow that had chained him to Goshinbuko as surely as had her sacred arrow. And Kagome wasn't gone, was she? She was just a few hundred years in the future. So, first things first…_

"_Hey Sesshomaru! You look like shit," Inuyasha called after him. To his surprise, his half-brother stopped, then turned to face him, his eyebrow trying to twitch into his hairline._

"_You are one to talk."_

"_Feh," Inuyasha scoffed as he stomped toward him, his steps growing surer every moment. "I ain't the one all worried over split ends."_

"_This Sesshomaru does not have split ends."_

They had drowned their sorrows in women and slowly but surely, forged the reluctant bond of brotherhood that they had been lacking all those years. However, he'd made sure that the secret of the well had stayed close to his heart, never breathing a word to the bastard (as he still fondly referred to him) of the girl's origins. If he knew his brother, and in some ways he knew him very well, the arrogant dog wouldn't let a measly five hundred years stand between him and winning their bet, for no other reason than to spite him for old time's sake. Therefore, as the years passed, Inuyasha had steered clear of the shrine he had loved so dearly during his youth, just so that his shrewd half-brother would have no reason to check it out. Though he may have never loved Kagome as she had wished, she would always be his first best friend and friends didn't let friends get screwed by Sesshomaru.

He inhaled a long draught of air, rolling the scents it carried over his palate. For an olfactory hallucination, the smell of Kagome, specifically her _sex,_ was awfully fucking strong. Were his dreams and this imaginary scent some kind of sign? He'd have to be careful, but…maybe it was time he pay her a visit. After all, Kikyou was long gone; his feelings for the undead priestess had been Kagome's only hang up about taking him to bed and though he still cherished Kikyou's memory, he had long since moved on, just as she'd wanted. And even if they didn't sleep together, he had dearly missed her warm smile and joyful, contagious laughter.

At the moment, however, he had business to attend to, namely this stupid quarterly meeting of the Council of Cardinal Lords. He wasn't a Lord, but he was the host because his joint, and this room in particular, was one of the few spots they trusted to not have ears in the walls. Lucky him. He sure as hell wasn't taking notes, though.

He, Kouga, Sesshomaru and the two other Cardinal Lords were seated cross-legged around a polished teakwood table in a darkly lit little room. Occasionally, a flash of colored light would stream through the one-way window that consumed an entire wall, overlooking the main floor of the club. The padded, reinforced walls and floor thrummed with the heavy beat of music.

"Not enjoying the show?" Inuyasha growled to Kouga, jerking his head toward the twin hanyou that ground against the pole on the stage in perfectly timed synchronicity. A swath of red lights arched over the stage and through the window, reflecting off his brother's hair and turning it a brilliant pink.

"Naw," Kouga dismissed them with a careless wave of his hand. "Not interested."

"Do you ever get male dancers in here?" Toran, Lord of the North, asked after a quick glance at the stage. Technically, she was Lady of the North, being female, but old traditions die hard, even if they are just titles. At Inuyasha's grunt, the panther youkai rolled her eyes and tossed a lock of ice-blue hair over her shoulder. "You might draw a wider audience."

"I ain't having males on my stage. I don't swing that way," Inuyasha snapped irritably and splashed a couple fingers of whisky into his tumbler.

Hoshi, Lord of the South, shook his untidy nest of red, spiky hair in mock regret and rolled his green eyes to the heavens. "Inuyasha, you don't know what you're missing. To have a female below you and a male above…" he leaned toward the hanyou and licked his lips sensuously. "What do you say, Puppy Ears? You never know until you try it."

"Oi, back off, pervert! And keep your hands to yourself!" he snapped, sending the roaming hand of the fox demon a withering glare.

"Well, _I_ thought it was a good idea," the Hoshi commented to Toran, who shrugged and smiled, enjoying watching Inuyasha squirm. The insides of his ears blushed the sweetest shade of pink under Hoshi's constant teasing. Everyone but Inuyasha knew that the kitsune only propositioned him to get a rise but no one was about to say a word.

Kouga snickered, joining in on the fun. "And here I thought that you'd tried everything, Inuyasha."

"Everything but miko," Hoshi interjected with a raised finger.

Sesshomaru nearly startled when the word "miko" hit his eardrums, not quite able to suppress a small growl. He had been ignoring the banter; his body was on autopilot as his brain fought against the insistent push of emotions that he thought were long buried. In fact, if he'd bothered to think back on his day, he would have found that he couldn't remember much of what anyone had said to him since he'd found the ruined well in the remains of a fire.

Not a trace of her scent had remained to tell him whether she had survived or not, and as he'd scoured the rutted, scorched earth of the shrine, two phantom pairs of brown eyes had seemed to stare at him from the shadowed recesses in the piles of burnt timber, disappointment and betrayal darkening their depths.

He, Sesshomaru, Taiyoukai of the West, couldn't protect his women.

That knowledge was a gnawing, debilitation cancer that ate away at the edges of his ego. Had the word existed in his vocabulary, he might have called it humbling. Of course, he had no concrete evidence that Kagome had lived at the shrine beyond the instincts that had led him to it, nor could he tell conclusively whether or not the occupants had survived the fire. All he had was a gut feeling that something disastrous had occurred to his little miko and guilt that he had, once again, failed a woman that he...

"What's wrong with you?" Inuyasha asked gruffly, getting a weird vibe from his normally aloof brother. Only then did he notice his slightly haggard appearance: his navy suit slightly wrinkled, his shirt unbuttoned at the throat and missing a tie, his eyes a darkened, molten gold. Gone were the pomp and decorum that Sesshomaru usually saved for these blasted meetings. In fact, he didn't remember him looking so worn since Rin had died, and he had talked him out of the sacred tree.

Broken out of potentially dangerous thoughts, Sesshomaru replied with a disinterested, "Hn."

Hoshi grinned and leaned toward Toran, covering his mouth with his hand as he whispered loudly in her ear, "I heard he's off his game. That would put anyone is a foul mood."

Inuyasha snorted, "Shut up, cornhole. Nobody asked you."

"I'm serious! If you don't take your junk out for a walk once in a while, your stuff backs up against your brain, causing all sorts of emotional disorders."

"I wouldn't know about that," Inuyasha bragged with a lecherous grin.

"Not this again," Toran sighed and propped her cheek in her hand. Now came the part of the meeting where the males would swap stories of past conquests. It had taken her centuries of honing her power and prowess in battle, clawing her way through tradition and male chauvinism, to acquire a seat in the boy's club known as the Council of Cardinal Lords. If someone had told her that she would spend the greater part of each quarterly meeting listening to her fellow Lords exaggerating their adventures between the sheets, she might not have bothered.

Kouga, Lord of the East, grinned and crossed his arms over his chest. "Like a miko would bother with dog meat." Sesshomaru growled again, but Kouga's grin just widened.

Inuyasha narrowed his eyes in annoyance, not liking that smile one bit. He also didn't like the way the wolf was ignoring the women onstage. Kouga was usually a "look but don't touch" kind of guy, but boy, did he like to get an eyeful.

Toran cocked her head, an errant lock of blue hair falling over her shoulder. "Kouga, there is something you're not telling us."

"I've found a new mate," Kouga announced grandly, his solemnity belied by his twinkling eyes and wide smile.

"And which female has the dubious honor?" Sesshomaru asked at his most bored. He didn't really care, but he had to do something to keep his mind off of Kagome long enough to finish this meeting. It didn't help that the scent of Kagome's panties had somehow clung to him and now filled his nose, teasing his mind with images of the miko writhing beneath him, and then bursting into angry, wicked flames.

"Like any female in her right mind would mate a wus like you," Inuyasha added knowingly.

"I bedded her three days ago. This is just a formality," Kouga said as he fished something out of his suit jacket pocket. He set the black velvet box on the table, and then leaned back again with a self-satisfied sigh.

"What'd ya do, get her drunk?" the hanyou asked carelessly, and then snorted when Kouga winced. "You did! What a fucking prick."

Picking it up with long, elegant fingers, Toran opened the little box, raising a surprised eyebrow as she set it back on the table, still open. A princess cut solitaire, brilliantly white and over a carat and a half, glittered from its padded depths. "So, she's human. Kouga, humans don't have the tolerance for alcohol that we do. You should have known better."

"It was an accident!" Kouga protested to Toran's stern stare. "But that doesn't change anything. We were meant to be."

"Bullshit! No female would willingly sleep with a mangy wolf like you, much less mate you," Inuyasha sneered and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I don't know," Hoshi interjected as he gave the wolf an appraising stare. "He's not so hard on the eyes…"

Toran sighed again and tried to redirect the conversation back to more important matters. The wolf tended to make unfounded, wild assumptions and she felt for the poor woman who may have just been looking for a one-night stand. Some youkai would consider themselves in a mated, monogamous relationship after one sexual encounter (obviously not dogs), but humans did not. As annoying and presumptive as he could be, Kouga had a good heart and she'd rather not see him make an ass out of himself over a misunderstanding that could be avoided. "Kouga, just because she slept with you does not mean she's your mate. Did she actually agree to it?"

From long years of association, Inuyasha recognized the telltale shifting of Kouga's eyes to mean that no, technically, the female had not agreed; not that it would discourage the stupid wolf. The kami knew how much he'd pestered Kagome when it was obvious that she had no eyes for any but himself. Still, any excuse to have a laugh at Kouga's expense was a good one, so he made no attempt to harness the raucous guffaws that burst from his gut.

"Shut up, you albino freak!" Kouga bellowed as he slammed the flats of his hands against the table and leaned into the face of the hysterically laughing hanyou. Hoshi grabbed his ponytail and pulled him back, tsking prissily to Toran, who only rolled her eyes. Jerking his head to free his hair, Kouga snarled toothily from his seat, "I won't have you laughing at my woman!"

As the words "my woman" tumbled from Kouga's lips, Inuyasha's tongue betrayed him, darting to the back of his throat and down his windpipe, blocking his lungs and starving oxygen from his brain, which had promptly dropped into an endless reboot cycle. By the time he managed to cough up his tongue and meet the amused, baffled eyes of his table mates, he had convinced himself that there was no possible way he could have heard what he thought he heard. No fucking way. 'Cause it wasn't possible.

"Your…woman?" Inuyasha wheezed, just to make sure that he had misunderstood.

Sesshomaru's eyes glided from his slightly blue, shell-shocked brother to an enormously self-satisfied, grinning wolf. Sesshomaru recognized that grin, having received one from his father on a particularly balmy, jasmine-perfumed night. And don't forget the scent of sex! It had clung to the old dog like a cloud of gnats, biting and stinging his son with the knowledge of a woman lost. This was odd, that Kouga would be smiling as if he'd just snatched the hen out of the house under the watchful dog's eyes. As far as he could remember, the only female the two had vied for was…

It occurred to him in a distant, idle sort of way, as he closed the smoking claws of his right hand around the throat of a much less satisfied wolf demon, that they would have to find a new Lord of the East.

"Are we missing something?" Hoshi asked Toran as he hurdled the table to catch Inuyasha mid pounce and pin him to the floor with his body, a hard knee pressed mercilessly to the small of the hanyou's back. Inuyasha bucked and shouted, but Hoshi just gave his butt a firm swat. He was not Lord of the South for nothing.

The panther demoness' voice cut through the suddenly howling, icy winds that buffeted about the small room, "I should think so."

A sheath of ice began to coat the taiyoukai's arm that held aloft the wolf and form a rapidly enlarging barrier that obscured his view of a pair of protruding blue eyes and a lolling purple wolf tongue. His fingers were numb and yet he squeezed, ignoring the claws that raked at his hands and the ice shield separating them. A pity about the ice, really, for he would have liked to remove the appendage from which he now knew Kagome's scent originated and stuff it down the asphyxiating wolf's throat. Unfortunately, the ice had become a wall several feet thick, stretching from floor to ceiling and wall-to-wall, holding him trapped (a minor inconvenience, really) from his wrist to his shoulder. Worse yet, his prey was ripped, quite literally, out of his clawed grip.

Sesshomaru ground his teeth together and growled, the vibrations humming through the block of ice, "Release me, Lord of the North, or the Council will find itself short two members."

Or three, if one counted the cock he intended to serve to its owner. He punched the wall of ice with his free hand for good measure and smirked as a jagged crack stretched from the indent his knuckles had made to the other side. Kouga released a strangled cough that was far too lively for Sesshomaru's taste and his trapped fingers clenched reflexively, dripping poison onto the lovely, ruined lacquered table.

"Lord of the West, you overstep your bounds," Toran intoned from the other side of the ice wall in her best lordly voice. Next meeting, she would request that her fellow Lords check their testosterone at the door. "This brawl is against everything for which this Council stands, as you are very much aware. If you have a grievance with the Lord of the East, you will settle it properly!"

"Yeah, with my foot so far up his ass, he'll be licking my- ow!" Inuyasha barked, then was quickly silenced by Hoshi's grip on his arms.

"Now, now, Puppy Ears, let the adults talk and maybe I'll give you a treat for being good," Hoshi teased as he gave Inuyasha's arms another healthy wrench to make his point, aborting an attempt by the hanyou to throw him off his back.

"Hoshi, you aren't helping," Toran ground out in irritation. Maybe she should just drop her ice shield and let the stupid males tear themselves apart. It would leave several open Council seats, which she would happily fill with levelheaded, rational females. The Council of Cardinal Ladies. Yes, that sounded nice. And they would bring in some fucking male dancers.

Sesshomaru eyed the barrier, willing it to melt under his gaze like the wolf should have done under his poison. He couldn't quite decide what angered him more: that fact that the wolf had pre-empted his bet with his brother, that the wolf had inebriated and screwed a female that most definitely belonged to this Sesshomaru, or that the wolf's entrails were not lazily steaming in the chilly air. Unfortunately, Toran was correct. He had to follow the Council law for retribution and eviscerate Kouga in a civilized ceremony.

In retrospect, after he had finally come to learn what true happiness really was, he would recognize this moment as a turning point in his life as joy and unbridled fury waged a war within his heart and decisions wrote themselves in stone on his soul. Kagome had not died in the fire like he had feared; she was very much alive and that knowledge sent waves of warmth through his being. And yet, by sheer, idiot luck (for what else could it be?), Kouga had found (and fucked) her first. An ugly, unfamiliar roiling in his gut tainted the relief and fed his rage, though he stamped it down ruthlessly. He needed a cool head and a steady hand to handle this situation properly, for there was only one acceptable outcome.

The wolf could lay claims until he was blue in the face, but it would not change the fact that he had stepped onto another, more powerful, youkai's territory. Sesshomaru may have relinquished Izayoi without a fight, but he was _not_ going to let go of Kagome. She belonged to him and there wasn't a damn thing anyone, let alone a ridiculous wolf youkai with delusions of mating, could do about it.

However, he had to admit a certain amount of disappointment with his miko's actions, though she _had_ followed his brother around for a number of years, so perhaps it wasn't all _that_ surprising. Then again, humans were notorious lightweights and it was entirely possible that Kagome had only been half conscious when the deed had occurred. Virgins tended to be a bother anyway, what with the pain and crying, so maybe it wasn't such a _horrible _thing that Kagome had lost hers. He seriously doubted that she had been very impressed by the wolf's performance, so really, Kouga had given him an opportunity to demonstrate what true prowess in bed actually was. None of this precluded his desire to see the wolf dead, for he couldn't quite remember the last time he was so unbelievable pissed off, but perhaps he would strangle him a bit in order to dull the pain before he cut open his stomach. Then again, perhaps he would hang the wolf by his own intestines in order to prolong it. Who knew?

"The miko is mine," he clarified to all present, leaving the precise details of the wolf's demise for later. As an afterthought, he decided magnanimously, "I will present her your head as a gift." After all, he could simply leave Kouga's head for carrion crows to eat. This offered him a modicum of dignity.

From behind the taiyoukai and slightly muffled by the floor, Inuyasha growled, "Neither of you two fuckers are laying a finger on Kagome!"

"Don't you jackasses suppose that the girl would like a say in her future?" Toran asked, exasperated, watching an enraged, half-dead wolf as he convulsed on the floor and pawed at the oozing gouges on his neck. The blue lights streaming in through the one-way window colored his face a pale, sickly shade of oxygen-deprived teal. "There will be no fighting, no decapitation…" she eyed the Lord of the West's fingers as they twitched again, glowing slightly green, "and absolutely no ceremonial dueling. She will make her own decision!"

"I second the motion!" Hoshi added from his spot on Inuyasha's back and pressed the hanyou's face into the floor when he tried to protest.

"Kouga thirds," Toran said with finality when the wolf gestured his acceptance with the hand that wasn't try to hold his throat together.

Sesshomaru growled, clenching his fist hard enough to draw blood. Majority ruled in Council matters, as much as he might dislike it. So be it: he would have to win the girl in much the same game as he had once played with his brother. Only this time, the stakes felt much, much higher.

And if the wolf were to meet an unfortunate end in an accidental mangling after this sordid affair was resolved (namely, with the miko tucked safely into his bed), then the Council's ruling would still have been upheld.

Slamming the knuckles of he free arm into the wall, picturing the wolf's snout on the receiving end instead of ice, Sesshomaru added another deep crack to the wall that weakened his other arm's prison to the point that he could drag it free. With a cold, menacing glare at Hoshi, who shrugged and climbed off of a grumbling Inuyasha, he swept out of the room.

Inuyasha climbed to his feet, brushing bits of ice off his dark suit, then pointed a clawed finger in Hoshi's face. "I want that spineless shit outta my club, you hear me? Don't make me send someone up to bounce his ass," he said, though he looked ready to do the bouncing himself, and probably out the picture window at the front of the room.

"We are leaving, Inuyasha. Thank you for your hospitality," Toran said politely from behind the melting ice barrier.

Snorting, the hanyou stomped out of the room. "Go fuck yourselves."

"Kagome…" Hoshi tapped a thoughtful finger against his chin. "Why does that name sound familiar?"

Toran shrugged and flicked a lock of ice-blue hair over her shoulder. "That's the name of the priestess they are always bickering over. The one that helped destroy Naraku."

"Oh, _that_ priestess. But wouldn't she have died hundreds of years ago?"

"One would think," Toran replied noncommittally, less concerned about why a priestess who lived five hundred years ago had suddenly turned up and more concerned about preventing the Council from erupting in mindless bloodshed over the ownership of said priestess. Bending low, she grabbed Kouga's arm and hauled him to unsteady feet, manhandling him over the remnants of her ice barrier. Kouga cussed and sputtered in a hoarse whisper, stumbling when Toran released him with a small shove.

"Hm," Hoshi grunted, not particularly impressed by Kouga's theatrics. "To have wrapped three powerful males around her pinky finger, she must have one tight c-" he expelled his breath in a giant whoosh as Toran's elbow connected with his solar plexus, and then watched the panther stalk out of the soggy room.

"Don't get any ideas, Hoshi," she threw over her shoulder. "And take that drowned rat out with you."

Laughing quietly to himself, Hoshi shook his head and clapped Kouga on the back, ignoring his yelp of pain. "Well, at least the meeting wasn't boring."

XxxxxxX

Kagome perused her reflection with a critical eye, angling her body and giving herself a little pout over her shoulder as she batted shadowed eyes beneath a shiny fringe of black bangs. The low cut V of the back of the dress reached almost to the base of her spine, complimenting her light tan with deep, glossy, burgundy satin. The front of the dress was a modest swag, hinting at the swell of her breasts but not revealing anything more than decency allowed. Clinging to her skin as if it were tailored to her body, the satin draped to the floor in a loose sheath with a tiny, romantic train at the back. Her hair was piled on her head in a messy, I-don't-care kind of way that took hours to achieve, tendrils curling haphazardly around her face and down her back.

She had to agree with her brother: she looked hot. Who knew her prudish cousin Kaori had kept such slinky dresses in her closet, much less had worn them? Not that she needed them now, as she tooled about on the ocean and completed her master's in marine biology.

Perhaps it was the wrong signal to be sending Kouga, but he _had _said to wear something nice. And it wasn't like she was going on a date with him: she was accompanying him as his friend. He just didn't know that yet. The fact that one of her youkai friends might show up to wherever it was they were going had nothing to do with the effort she had put into her appearance. Doubtless, it was some romantic little restaurant or other, possibly frequented by other youkai, and it would be complete and utter coincidence if someone, say, Sesshomaru, just happened to be there. She was certainly not dressed for him, not like he'd be there anyway. She was dressed for…herself.

She blew a little kiss at the mirror and smiled, silently thanking her aunt for finding the perfect shade of lipstick in the countless number of tubes that inhabited the bathroom vanity as she grabbed her purse from the edge of the counter. Ensconced deeply within was a small, brown plastic ring with "wolf" embossed on top of the disc, compliments of her brother. She'd given him a quizzical look when he'd handed it to her that afternoon. He'd just shrugged and shoved his hands in his pockets, looking every bit the teenager he was.

"_I dunno…I pulled it out of my breakfast this morning and remembered how much you liked them. And it's a wolf, see? Maybe it'll bring you luck."_

Kagome had thanked him graciously with every intention of flushing the accursed thing down the nearest toilet. Somehow, it had ended up in her purse. Go figure.

The doorbell rang moments later and Kagome turned away from the mirror, switched off the bathroom lights and headed downstairs.

"Ooooh, Kagome!" her mother squealed as she met her halfway up the stairs. Grabbing her arm, she urged her down, making excited, inarticulate sounds of glee. Kagome eyed the camera in her free hand with growing dismay.

'Please, no. Oh, kami, no,' Kagome begged the silent gods that her mother was not arranging her on the second to last step for the reason she suspected. When her mother backed away, her hands clasped around the camera and under her chin, a wide, happy smile consuming her face, Kagome was hard pressed to stifle a groan. Her fate was sealed when Kouga, accompanied by Souta, who was trying to act cool but only succeeded in looking constipated, strolled into the room.

'_Hot damn!'_

The wolf ring broadcasted to her Kouga's enthusiastic thought and in spite herself, she had to echo the sentiment. He looked quite dapper in a tailored charcoal sports coat and slacks with a clingy burgundy turtleneck underneath. He grinned and eyed her from head to toe, brushing back one side of the jacket to put a hand in a pocket and giving her a view of well-defined pectorals that stretched the thin cotton of his shirt. A brief image of her fingertips sweeping over his bare nipples flashed through her mind and she blushed, dropping her gaze. She did NOT want to remember that.

"Now, you stand there, Kagome," her mother instructed, and then looped an arm around one of Kouga's, guiding him to the staircase and Kagome's side. "Such a fine young man he is!" she gushed as she grinned up at Kouga, who grinned right back, wrapping an arm around Kagome's waist. "On the count of three!"

"Mo-om!" Kagome finally protested when her mother brought the camera to her eye. Standing behind their mother, Souta waggled his eyebrows at her in such a Miroku-like fashion that she almost forgot to blow him a raspberry. The flash lit the room and Mrs. Higurashi frowned.

"Now we'll have to take another one. This time smile, Kagome!"

Dutiful daughter that she was, Kagome swallowed her humiliation and smiled for the next picture, trying to ignore the claws that poked into her hip and the appreciative sounds that were spilling from Kouga's brain. At least Sesshomaru's thoughts had been coherent: Kouga was mentally panting!

Descending the steps with Kagome in tow, Kouga planted a chaste kiss on Mrs. Higurashi's cheek. "We need to run, but it was good to meet you…Mom."

Her mother grinned and blushed, giggling as she waved her hand in a shooing motion. "You kids run along and have a wonderful evening!"

Kagome glared daggers at his pointed ear, fully revealed by the low ponytail that bound his hair. Her desire to know why he wasn't concealing his demon features was far outdistanced by the realization that she had to put a stop to his assumption that they had a future together before her mother planned their wedding. She was getting that nuptial gleam in her eye, the one her aunt had had when her cousin Kaori's relationship with her boyfriend had reached the one-year mark.

'What would she do if I told her Kouga and I had drunken sex at the beach the other night?' Kagome thought nastily as she climbed into the passenger seat, carefully pulling her dress's train after her so that it wouldn't get caught in the door that Kouga closed for her. 'Scratch that, I don't want to know.'

The car ride was quiet, at least on Kagome's part, as she puzzled through her mind the best way to let Kouga down easily and yet make it perfectly clear that there was no hope for a relationship between them. Kouga chattered at her happily, assuming from her noncommittal sounds that he had her full and rapt attention. The moments that she actually did listen, she found that his words echoed his thoughts and was slightly amazed that he was the only demon she'd met who actually said what was on his mind.

"Wow, Kagome, you look absolutely fantastic in that dress! Not that I ever had a problem with the fuku - that was hot, too. But wow! I mean…"

Only one thought rattled around the wolf's brain without making it to his lips, and it was one that should have given her cause to worry had she been less distracted by planning their breakup. A breakup of a nonexistent relationship, that was. How did she get herself into these messes?

'_Is she going to be surprised, or what! She's gonna be so happy…'_

The two-seater antique sports car purred to a stop in the dimly lit parking garage and Kouga had opened her door before Kagome even fully realized that they had arrived at their destination. Pulling her out of the car and into his arms with a helpful hand, Kouga planted a lingering kiss on her lips. Kagome stiffened, trying to pull away and Kouga released her, giving her a knowing smirk.

"Don't worry, love; no one's here to see us. Not like it will matter soon, anyway."

"Kouga-"

"They really should get valet parking for this joint," he commented, cutting her off as he led her toward the elevator.

Kagome sighed heavily as the elevator whisked them up and tried again, "Kouga, we really need to talk-"

"Sure, sure, whatever you want. Later, though." Kouga grinned down at her, his blue eyes sparkling with excitement and adoration. "Gods, you're so beautiful, Kagome. How did I get to be so lucky?"

Kagome blinked and fixed her eyes to the floor, unable to handle the love in his eyes. 'This is going to suck,' she thought despondently. If only she could return just a fraction of what he felt for her, then maybe, _maybe_ she would give it a try. Could she love him in time? Was she being premature in her assumption that she could never love him that way? But there was no spark, no chemistry, nothing that drew her to him like what she had shared with Sesshomaru…

The elevator doors slid open and Kagome's train of thought was lost amongst the twinkling of thousands of star-like lights strung from branch to branch of several tall, delicate, potted Chinese maples. The trees were widely spaced throughout a large rooftop patio where dozens of demons and several humans mingled, talking and laughing as they sipped drinks and munched on appetizers from small, porcelain plates. At the center of the patio, an enormous, rectangular planter held a healthy stand of bamboo from which fluttered long pieces of paper and brightly colored ribbon. Three telescopes were propped up against the railing pointing towards the murky night sky. Like a paper globe lamp, the waxing moon glowed dimly through the city haze.

'_This is perfect! The holiday of the star-crossed lovers…she's gonna be so surprised…'_

Kouga grabbed her elbow and propelled her out of the elevator, leaning down to whisper in her ear, "Do you want to make a wish?"

Nodding and feeling like a little girl again, she pulled a slip of paper out of the bamboo holder and accepted a finely tipped brush from Kouga's hand. She had loved this holiday as a little girl and hadn't stopped wishing on stars, never quiet ready to give up on the hope that they could grant her heart's desires. But how long had it been since she'd written a Tanabata wish? She couldn't quiet remember.

Hunching a shoulder to hide her writing from Kouga's prying eyes, Kagome drew her wish in tidy characters and folded the paper, tying it up with the countless other wishes that hung from the tree. Kouga huffed playfully and wrapped an arm around her waist, guiding her toward a table laden with appetizers.

'_She probably wished for a dozen cubs and was too shy to tell me. My wonderful Kagome…'_

Kagome rolled her eyes and reached for a stuffed mushroom. At least he wasn't thinking in detail about how those cubs would be conceived. Why had she brought the stupid Wolf Decoder Ring with her in the first place? It wasn't as if anything in his thoughts would change her mind.

"Excuse me," a sibilant voice hissed in her ear as someone brushed by her. Kagome turned toward the voice, catching a glimpse of yellow-green slitted eyes before the woman turned away, her hips swaying in her sequined dress as she walked.

'Where have I seen her before?' Kagome wondered curiously, chewing her mushroom and snagging another from the platter. Those things were good! And she was a lot hungrier than she'd expected, given the circumstances.

Her appetite took a turn for the worse, however, when a small commotion drew her eyes to the elevator doors at the other side of the patio.

"Aw, fuck," Kouga swore next to her, reclaiming his grip around her waist. Kagome had to agree, though not quite with the same sentiment. As her mouth dried to a hot, cottony cavern and darker, more secret places became damp, she was suddenly, overwhelmingly glad that she had dressed to kill. By the kami, she had murder on her mind.


	14. Kouga Drops the Ball

Edited by: thymecat 

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi.

Chapter 14 – Kouga Drops the Ball 

"Where is she? I know she's here with that-hurk!"

Inuyasha hit the cement patio floor with a surprised grunt, much to the astonishment of the twin hanyou that had been clutching his arms. Their painted, plum lips formed identical 'O's of surprise and large, dark doe eyes met in the space where a silver head once resided.

"Yasha-baby!"

"You okay?" the women chimed, one after the other.

"I see you still wear the subduing beads," Sesshomaru commented dryly, his eyes fixed on a resplendent vision in burgundy satin, marred only by the fact that a suicidal wolf had his arm wrapped possessively around her waist…and she wasn't removing it. Very well, he would remove it for her…and make sure it didn't grow back…

"Nope!" Toran shot her arm in front of a growling dog demon, relieved that he stopped instead of mowing her over. "No violence!"

"They wouldn't come off," grumbled Inuyasha when he was finally able to pry himself off of the concrete, completely missing the exchange between Toran and Sesshomaru. He straightened his red, button-down shirt and dusted off his jeans (he'd compromised and had worn _black_ denim), allowing his girls to brush the dust off of his butt, even though he hadn't fallen on it. "Nice fucking way to greet an old friend!"

"Oompf!" He was prone on the cement a moment later, the hanyou twins fluttering prettily above him. "Whoa, she's pissed about something."

"I had noticed." And he had: it was hard to miss the glare of death she was sending him, her dark eyes snapping with fury as the spike in her unmistakable scent curled toward him through the other odors of the party. He drank it in greedily and his first fresh draught in five hundred years sent undignified tremors through his limbs.

Ever since his Miko Receiver had begun to throb approximately three hours ago, he had been tense, on edge, and though he hated to admit it, impatient. It had been more than enough to urge him out of his office and into something semi-casual (but scrumptious), where he'd cooled his heels and cursed the day he'd agreed to carpool with Inuyasha. The idea that Kouga might miss this opportunity to flaunt Kagome had not occurred to him; if he, Sesshomaru, had been in possession of the girl (and it was only a matter of time), then he certainly would have brought her to Hoshi's fashionable star-gazing party. When the three hanyou had finally arrived and the pulsing of the receiver had gotten stronger as they approached the party, it had taken significant stores of his indomitable will to remain coldly detached instead of fidgeting like a pup.

As absurd as his struggle may have seemed, he had forgiven himself the instant he'd caught her eye. He realized that the idea of Kagome, though tantalizing enough to give him countless sleepless nights, was nothing compared to Kagome in the flesh. She may not have been the most beautiful female he had ever seen, but she had a certain _je ne sais quoi _that drew him to her. Snippets of their arguments, comfortable silences and passionate kisses traipsed through his mind, quickening his blood and stirring his youki. She had been so much _fun_; he was anxious to begin the chase anew. Interestingly enough, and taking him somewhat by surprise, it wasn't only his groin that was tingling: something in his chest tightened in a remarkably pleasant way. Perhaps he _had_ missed her, a little bit.

Lowering his chin to let his bangs fall into his eyes, he gave the female the tiniest of predatory smiles. Her eyes widened and he could almost feel her increased heart rate thrumming against the air between before she deliberately turned her back on him, offering a tantalizing view of her backside enhanced by the shimmering satin of her dress.

"Hey Moondoggie, you're drooling," Hoshi commented as he strolled up beside him, a sparkling glass of champagne in one clawed hand.

Sesshomaru swallowed quickly after licking his lips (just in case), "This Sesshomaru does not drool."

"Whatever you say," the fox humored him with a patronizing smile. "Not that I blame you; she's got a fantastic a-"

Toran jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow and he clutched at his side dramatically, "No abuse of the host! And I just call them as I see them."

Rolling her eyes when she was sure that Sesshomaru wouldn't turn his claws on Hoshi, Toran sighed. "What was Kouga thinking bringing her here, knowing that those two," she jerked her head toward the dog brothers, who were both staring intently at Kagome, "would be here, too?"

Hoshi shrugged casually, "That's Kouga for you. Besides, it's not a party without a good brawl!"

"That is exactly what we are trying to avoid! You keep your eyes on Inuyasha," she didn't miss his quick, mischievous grin, "and I'll watch the West."

"A host really must mingle…but for Puppy Ears, I'll make an exception," Hoshi drawled and sidled toward Inuyasha, planting a kiss on each of his consorts' cheeks, much to their exclaimed delight. Inuyasha was less than attentive at the moment, not that they expected him to have eyes only for them, but they didn't appreciate being ignored.

Kagome watched the odd group of youkai out of the corners of her eyes from her post at the buffet, still seething over the smoldering look Sesshomaru had sent her and her traitorous body's reaction to it. And she couldn't believe how Inuyasha touted those two floosies hanging off his arms! Obviously hanyou with matching sets of elongated taupe deer ears, their exaggerated hourglass forms were poured into white, haltered dresses that barely came to the tops of their thighs. The first osuwari had slipped out by accident; the second she had meant.

Sesshomaru stood next to a demoness that she was sure she had met before: tall, slender, with classically beautiful features and a lush mane of ice blue hair. Her modest cocktail dress was shimmering silver, reminiscent of a fish's scales, and complimented Sesshomaru's tailored white slacks and midnight blue shirt. Could it be that they were together? The thought shot a ribbon of disappointment through her veins, chilling the blood as it pumped through her body.

The blue-haired demoness laughed and latched onto Sesshomaru's elbow, guiding him away from the little group as Inuyasha, the two hanyou and a redhead in leather pants wandered off in the opposite direction. With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, she realized that none of them seemed inclined to approach her and that Sesshomaru and the demoness were, in fact, an item.

Of course, they had moved on: it had been five hundred years since she had last seen them! But it didn't stop the tearing of her eyes or the painful squelching of her heart under careless paws. She couldn't fool herself, no matter how hard she tried: seeing the dog with another women hurt, more so than she'd ever expected. She should have been used to it with Inuyasha and all the crap he'd pulled with Kikyou, but it left fresh wounds on her already tender heart, driving home the fact that she'd been the flavor of the moment, easily discarded for the next pretty face. Through her mounting anger and heartache, Kagome felt sorry for the demoness whose boyfriend couldn't keep his eyes to himself. Did Sesshomaru even recognizer her?

'The jerk probably eyeballs anything in a skirt,' Kagome thought as she steeled herself against the pang of regret and slid her eyes away from the couple to Inuyasha and his small entourage. He was snarling at Kouga over his shoulder, his silver ears laid flat against his head as he walked stiff-legged between the two trollops. The group disappeared behind the stand of bamboo and Kagome release a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and blinked rapidly, trying to stymie the tears that had collected in her eyes. Not even her best friend had come to greet her! Granted, she'd just sat him twice, but still…

'Oh dear,' she thought with a mental wince. She'd just sat the person she claimed as her best friend after not seeing him for a few weeks, or centuries, or whatever it was. Squeezing her eyes shut against an oncoming headache, she chastised herself, 'I'm such an idiot. No wonder he's avoiding me. And he's still wearing those beads…'

Feeling like an absolute heel, she sighed heavily, staring sightlessly at a platter of bruschetta. Kouga must have sensed her distress, for he pulled her closer and whispered in her ear, "Don't worry, love. I won't ever let those mongrels hurt my woman."

All at once, it was too much for her to handle: Kouga's smothering, unrequited love, the shock of seeing Inuyasha and Sesshomaru with other women, her own pain, anger and _longing _pressing down with claustrophobic force. Someone jostled her elbow, pushing a strange youkai aura into her personal space, and she cringed as the air became too stuffy to breath. A tiny flare of panic set her heart racing and tiny discharges of purity crackling in her hair like static electricity.

Kouga winced and released her waist, flexing his fingers as if burned. "Kagome?"

"I'm sorry, Kouga, I just need a minute to myself…" she pushed away from him and darted into the crowd, praying that he wouldn't follow her. More guests had arrived in the last several minutes, steadily filling the patio with a thick throng of richly dressed beings. Angling her body and walking quickly, she slipped through the crowd toward the edge of the patio, trying not to touch the bodies around her. A large potted tree placed near the railing created a small, semi-private space and it was towards this haven that Kagome fled.

Breathing harshly, she leaned against the railing and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to clear her mind of nothing but the wind on her face and the comforting sounds of the city below her. She really wanted to cry but she wouldn't let herself; she wouldn't give _them_ the satisfaction of knowing that they had hurt her without even trying. She was stronger than this.

"Kagome."

The word resonated behind her and goose bumps erupted on her skin in a prickly rush. She gasped and whirled around, hating that he'd intruded on her solitude as much as she loved the sound of her name rolling off of his tongue. Again, she found it difficult to breath, but now because the air had become too thin.

"Sesshomaru," she whispered, very glad that she could lean on the railing instead of dropping like overcooked spaghetti to the patio floor. Already, she could taste the tang of his poison, feel his long, hot tongue exploring the depths of her mouth, and yet he was standing four feet away. She licked her lips in a desperate attempt to moisten them, despite the fact that her mouth had become an arid desert. Clearing her throat, she blurted the first coherent thing that came to mind, "Where's your woman?"

'Absolutely brilliant, Kagome,' she thought as she tried not to cringe.

"My woman?" he asked as his head tilted slightly to the side and a thin lock of silvery hair slipped over one shoulder to trail over his midnight blue shirt. His left arm had grown back, she noted, and now both hands were stuffed casually into the pockets of his slacks. Her eyes drifted over a generous bulge and slight camel-toe at the front of his pants before shooting back up to his face with a heated scowl. His eyes glimmering brightly as they reflected the light of thousands of false stars, he stared at her with warm amusement and something darker that made her body clench invitingly. He'd just caught her cock-watching.

'This has to stop!' Kagome rallied her wayward mind and stiffened her spine. 'I'm _mad_ at that bastard.'

Smoothing her hands down her dress as she stood up straighter, not missing the way his eyes followed her hands' paths down her body, she lifted her chin and tried to remember what it was they had been talking about. Oh yeah, his _date_.

However, Sesshomaru beat her to the punch.

"I am looking at her." He took a step forward and Kagome suddenly wished that there wasn't a railing at her back so that she had some avenue of retreat. It wasn't that she wanted to _run away_; she simply wanted to maintain distance so that she didn't do anything stupid, like twirling her fingers through that lock of hair that had her so distracted. Settling for sidling sideways across the railing, she glared at him for all that she was worth.

"Liar," she bit out. "I know of your little game and I'm not playing."

"I do not play games," he stated untruthfully in his infuriatingly cool, collected manner as he took another predatory step forward. "Be careful of whom you accuse, miko."

Eyes narrowing, she forced her body not to retreat. "You probably use that same line on all of your little conquests," she spat the last word out with loathing, though for herself, or the blue-haired woman, or him, she couldn't quite say.

He blinked, regarding her from swirling pools of gold. If Kagome hadn't known better, she would have sworn that he was…confused? Damn it, where was a Dog Decoder when you needed one? He blinked again and a wry amusement, coupled with understanding, stilled the eddies of molten gold.

"Kagome," he said with another step forward and she had to bite her lips against a moan. Her name on his voice oozed like hot fudge over ice cream and how she wanted to gorge herself on it! Belatedly, she realized that he was now way too close, the fire of his youki dancing over her skin. Her spiritual power flared, brushing along the edges of his aura in an almost tangible caress that was doing nothing for dampness of her panties. "You are mistaken. I am not here with Toran."

"Oh," she said, now finally remembering why the demoness had seemed so familiar. She was one of the panther demons who had once tried to sacrifice her in order to resurrect their father. However, the flood of relief at hearing his words only served to further incite her anger. Tossing her head, she crossed her arms over her chest in a show of nonchalance, "It's not like I care, anyway."

"Do you not? I think it is you, miko, who are the liar," he stated, a knowing smile creeping into his eyes and quirking the corners of his lips. She wasn't fooling him and it was flustering her to no end.

"Yeah? Well at least I don't make wagers over other people's…" she finished with a frustrated, inarticulate noise and waved her hands, blushing furiously, unable to finish that sentence out loud in front of Sesshomaru, who practically exuded sex. Not when he was close enough to run her hands down his chest and feel his heated skin through his shirt. She fought against his gravitational pull with as much success as an orbiting planet and clasped her hands behind her back where they couldn't get her into trouble, thinking that maybe running away had been her best option, after all.

"Cocktail?" a light, feminine voice chirped to her right and without thinking, she stepped sidewise to grab a glass of red wine from the proffered platter of drinks, grateful for the interruption. With something to occupy her hands, she wouldn't be so tempted to touch the demon who was now staring menacingly at the waitress.

"Leave," he commanded coldly. The poor girl blanched and scurried away.

When they were alone once again, Kagome wished that she had taken that moment to scram, too. He closed the distance between them, towering over her as he eyed her glass with disdain, a tiny twist of his lip showing a hint of fang.

"Should you be drinking that? I hear," his eyes narrowed slightly and he gave her an odd, calculating look through thick, dark lashes, "that humans cannot hold their liquor."

Kagome gasped, mortified, her eyes widening as his meaning made itself all too clear. That jerk Kouga, how dare he gossip about something like that! Oh, was he going to get it! But first things first: to deal with the jerk at hand.

"I suppose you're right," she said with false sweetness and tipped her glass forward. He stepped back quickly, his breath hissing between his teeth, but not before a bright red stain had spread over the crotch of his pristine white pants, plastering the thin fabric to the package she had ogled earlier. She tried not to notice how well the phrase "trouser snake" fit him or that the crimson stain would accessorize nicely with the stripes that twisted around said snake, but quickly realized the futility of it all. Some things _required_ a good look.

His eyes snapped to hers, surprise widening them to graceful almonds as his lips parted slightly, though he didn't say a word. With a triumphant grin, Kagome set the empty glass on the railing and swept past him, nodding her head at Toran, who was standing just on the other side of the tree and giving her the oddest smile.

Toran watched the petite woman glide away, the pink light of her aura glittering around her in a corona of fairy dust and trailing behind her like ephemeral wings. She shook her head and turned to Sesshomaru, still standing in the alcove, her smile stretching at the sight of the wine stain on his pants.

"Drinking problem, Sesshomaru?"

Without sparing her a glance, he stalked away in the opposite direction, Toran following at a safe distance behind. She'd had misgivings when the taiyoukai had announced his claim on the woman, not wishing the overbearing, self-important dog on anyone, but with the scents of wine and desire, both human and demon, still heavy in the air, she decided that if anyone could put him in his place, Kagome could.

XxxxxxxxX

Winding her way through the crowd as she scanned it for a wolf demon to whom she owed a piece of her mind, Kagome allowed herself a mental happy dance for not only winning their spat, but not giving in to her treacherous body's desire to remove the pants that she had so blithely stained.

'I wonder if he still doesn't wear underwear?' the thought came unbidden, followed by a vivid mental image of red wine soaking his thick, white, curly carpet. At that moment, her spiked heel chose to wobble, sending her careening backward and into the arms of a fellow partier.

"Gah! Clumsy wench," her savior barked good-naturedly, setting her back on her feet and holding her at arm's length, then crushing her to him in a warm hug. "Gods, I've missed you, Kagome!"

"Missed you…too…Inuyasha," Kagome wheezed as she wrapped her arms around him and returned the pressure. Momentarily forgotten were his groupies and her anger as she surrendered to his loving embrace. Tears sprang to her eyes and she sniffled quietly, burying her face in his chest, uncaring of her carefully applied makeup. How could she even have believed, for one second, that he had forgotten her?

Inuyasha stiffened and pulled her away by the shoulders, staring flustered into her face, "Oi, stop with the waterworks!" Kagome laughed and dabbed at her eyes, trying not to smear her mascara any worse than it probably was. "Now, did that bastard hurt you or do I have only one ass to kick tonight?"

"Sesshomaru? No, he didn't hurt me…"

"Good. Then let's go find that pathetic excuse of a wolf and you can watch as I break floor with his face," he said and then grabbed her arm and began to drag her through the crowd.

"Why do you have to kick…" Kagome stopped in her tracks, effectively halting Inuyasha, as well. He turned to her with an impatient frown. With her heart wildly beating in her chest and humiliation staining her cheeks, she covered her mouth with her fingertips as she whispered, "He didn't tell you, too, did he?"

"Yeah, and I can't believe you could be so fucking stupid! It's not like we all haven't been there, but damn, Kagome! _Kouga_!" He shook his head, and then reared back with his ears pinned. "Don't cry! It's not your fault, it's mine! I shoulda been there for you."

Kagome was about to protest when he resumed their march across the patio, cursing the entire way and drawing disapproving stares from the other guests as he pushed them out of his way. "Fucking wolf won't know what hit him. He'll have to pull what's left of his balls outta his chest cavity when I get done with him…"

"Inuyasha, I don't want you to fight Kouga, this isn't your business," Kagome tugged on her arm, but to no avail.

"The fuck it isn't," he snorted. "If you see that perverted fox come by, distract him so he doesn't butt in."

"What was that about my butt?" Hoshi stepped in front of Inuyasha and gave him a cheerful leer, much to the hanyou's disgust. The fox shrugged and turned his eyes to Kagome, clasping one of her hands and bringing it to his lips with a flourished bow. "And don't you look ravishing tonight, my dear. Kagome, I presume?"

Blushing, Kagome suppressed the urge to giggle like a schoolgirl under the youkai's sincerely twinkling green eyes. That, and his tousled red hair, reminded her so much of Shippo that her heart nearly wept. "Um, yes, and you are?"

"Hoshi, Lord of the South, and your humble host for the evening. Though you know," he said thoughtfully as he turned her hand over and placed a kiss in her palm, "I have an apartment just below this patio and I would be honored to host a private-"

"Get your dirty lips offa Kagome!" Inuyasha snatched her arm out of Hoshi's grasp and yanked her behind him. And while Kagome didn't mind having Hoshi's proposition cut short (for it was quite clear to her that the fox had come from the same school of thought as a certain monk she'd known), she was suddenly reminded of why she had been angry with Inuyasha in the first place.

"Osuwari!" she snapped and scowled down at the prone hanyou. "How dare you act all possessive of me when you waltzed in here with not one, but TWO girls on your arms!"

"They're twins!" Inuyasha protested unhelpfully from the ground. Not even in five hundred years had he learned to not incite Kagome's wrath.

"Osuwari! And I can't _believe_ you bet on me with your brother like I was a piece of meat! How _could_ you?!"

"There wasn't any money involved!" he tried to explain, only to be forced into the cement again.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better? Osuwari!" She shouted and stamped her foot, her arms straight and rigid by her sides. Taking a deep breath, she smiled grimly at Hoshi. "Thank you for the lovely party."

Turning back to Inuyasha, she glared at the top of his silver head, wracking her brain for a suitably scathing, witty parting remark. None were forthcoming, so she settled for a final, "Osuwari," and stalked off.

She had a wolf to punish.

"Sadist," Hoshi commented above him, and then winked at the guests that had gathered around to witness the spectacle.

Inuyasha groaned and tested the strength of the spell, finding that he was still held quite snuggly to the patio. "Oh, shut up."

XxxxxxxX

After several minutes of wandering and craning her neck, Kagome found Kouga standing next to a small raised stage at the other end of the patio. The edge of the stage was trimmed with glittery swags of silver cloth and strands of white twinkling lights over top of a midnight blue velvet drape. For the stage itself, a panoramic view of the city served as the backdrop and two potted trees, each placed at one end of the stage, created makeshift wings.

'_It's almost time, I can hardly wait…'_

For what, Kagome neither knew nor cared. She was tired, pissed off, and her feet were killing her, not to mention that she was now more confused than ever. All she wanted was a nice hot, relaxing bath so that she could ponder what she'd learned tonight without fear of interruption. Obviously, Inuyasha had gotten over Kikyou and had become somewhat of a ladies' man. While the second discovery was somewhat disturbing, her lack of relief over the first was even more so, especially since it brought to light the third and most unnerving revelation of the evening, even though it really should have been no big surprise. She wanted Sesshomaru like she had wanted no other man and she was jealous of the women in his company. He was _not_ a passing fancy.

And hadn't he indirectly claimed her? What was all that about? So what if he was hot and just the sound of his voice stirred her hormones into a fevered tornado of need, she had had it with demons assuming ownership of her person. Speaking of which…

"Kouga!" she bit out, coming to a stop in front of him and jamming her hands on her hips, then jerking her head to the side as he tried to give her a distracted peck on the lips. "Please tell me why the _whole world_ knows about the other night?"

"Huh?"

'_Two more minutes! Just two more-'_

"Kouga!" she grabbed a handful of turtleneck and yanked down, bringing his face down to her level.

"Yes, love?" he asked as his eyes finally focused on her face and not what was going on over her right shoulder. "Oh! Yeah, that. They asked. What's the big deal?"

"What?!" Kagome could hardly believe her ears as she was literally struck dumb by his offhand explanation. She was seriously considering demonstrating to the ignorant wolf exactly how big of a deal it actually was with a knee to his groin when the lighting on the patio dimmed. An excited hush rippled through the crowd as bodies began to move toward them. Kouga latched onto her elbow, tugging her toward the portable steps placed at one end of the stage.

"Come on, Kagome, before the entertainer comes on!"

Kagome jerked on her arm with an indignant, "Hey! I'm not going up there!" Moments later, however, she found herself standing in the center of the stage next to Kouga and facing the entire party. To her immense relief, the stage was just as dark as the floor, though she knew that the audience could see their silhouettes.

"What are we doing up here?" she asked the wolf, who was waving to the spotlight operator at the back of the crowd, out of the corner of her mouth. "Don't do that, he'll turn on the light!"

Which is exactly what he did, flooding the stage with brilliant white light and blinding Kagome to an audience that whispered uncertainly upon seeing the pair on the stage. Kouga cleared his throat and stepped forward, tugging a hesitant Kagome along with him.

"Kouga, just what the hell do you think you're doing?" hissed Hoshi off-stage from his hiding place behind a potted plant.

Kouga sent him a placating gesture and addressed the audience, "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Before the entertainment begins, I, Kouga, Lord of the East have an announcement to make!"

Kagome didn't like the sound of that, or the way he pulled a small box out of his jacket and dropped to one knee, clasping her hands in his.

"Kagome Higurashi, will you marry me?"

The crowd gasped and awed but Kagome could do nothing but stand there and blink as the blood drained from her face, desperately hoping that a giant flying youkai would swoop down and snatch her up. Hell, it had happened to her before and at much less convenient times. Silently, she cursed the era where the population miko-snatching demon birds had been decimated. The humiliation of being kidnapped (yet again) would be nothing compared to this new torture.

"This is where you say yes, burst into tears and fall into my arms," Kouga prompted in a stage whisper to the immobile woman before him. He'd done his homework; why wasn't she following the script?

"Um…can we talk about this…somewhere else?" she whispered back with a frantic glance at the invisible audience that was now murmuring in the darkness.

A familiar gruff voice shouted from the audience, "Oi, you fucking-"

Striding quickly across the stage to stand in front of the couple, Hoshi held up his hands to gain the attention of the audience. Behind him, Kouga rose to his feet, Kagome's hand still held tightly in his own, and stared down at her with lost, longing eyes. "Kagome…"

She heard the catch in his voice, despite Hoshi's booming words as he placated the crowd. The spotlight blinked off and she almost swayed in relief, snatching her hand back to hitch the hem of her dress off the floor and flee for stage right. She heard Kouga's footsteps right behind her, his desperate pleading as called out her name. Without pause, she pushed through the crowd, her cheeks burning at the snickering and amused glances thrown her way. Finally, she reached the bank of elevators and leaned into the down button, pressing it several times as the floor indicator dinged placidly through the lighted panel of numbers above the door.

"Wait, Kagome," Kouga wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his cheek to the side of her neck, nuzzling his nose gently against her jaw line. "I love you, please wait."

Pressing her forehead against the cool metal doors of the elevator, Kagome tried to calm the fierce palpitations of her heart with a hand pressed against her chest.

"How could you do that to me?" she asked him quietly, squeezing her eyes shut against the rise of tears. She wasn't sure if she should be furious, mortified, or flattered, so she settled on flustered with a touch of all three. It had been one of the most romantic things anyone had ever done for her; was it Kouga's fault that he was the wrong guy holding the ring?

"I just…wanted to make it special," he mumbled against her neck, his silky lips brushing against her flushed skin. "Like in all those romance movies. 'Cause the other night was…"

"It was a mistake, Kouga," she stated quietly and fought down the lump in her throat that was threatening to choke her. Yes, he was a gossiping, presumptive jerk, but she'd never felt so cruel as she did now, when his arms tightened around her waist and his body shuddered against hers. She felt dirty; her hands coated with the blood of his heart as she neatly tore it in two.

"No, never," he whispered fiercely and buried his face further into her neck.

"I'm sorry, Kouga. I shouldn't have come…it wasn't fair to you."

He whimpered softy, nibbling gently on the skin behind her ear as he clung to her waist like a lifeline. "I don't believe you. You're just confused…"

The elevator binged cheerfully and Kagome released a sigh of relief, stumbling into the well-lit chamber with the wolf demon still wrapped around her. She pressed the parking level button, and then tried to gently pry loose the arms encircling her waist.

"I'm not confused-"

He released her suddenly, his hand clenching her shoulders to spin her around to face him. Staring searchingly into her face with blue eyes that were suspiciously moist and bright, he gave her shoulders a small shake. "You have stage fright! I didn't know! But now we're alone, so," he once more dropped to one knee, grabbing her hands and holding them against his cheek, "marry me, Kagome!"

"Kouga, I can't!"

"But you're my woman, my mate!"

"I'm not!"

"But we-"

"Because I was drunk!" she snapped in exasperation, hating to have to put it so bluntly but knowing that it was necessary.

He stared at her wide-eyed and she could almost hear the wheels spin in his brain as his thoughts tumbled over themselves in an incoherent mess. His face scrunched into a scowl as he stood, pulling her closer with his grasp on her wrists as he separated her arms and wrapped them around his chest. With the weight of his body, he pinned her against the wall of the elevator and pressed a fevered kiss against her lips, coaxing her to respond with greedy, desperate pressure. Kagome squeezed her eyes shut and pursed her lips, refusing to allow entrance to the tongue that lapped against her mouth. He gave up with a small whine, dropping his head to the crook of her neck and resting his forehead against her shoulder. His hands released hers, sliding down her arms to settle on her hips, the points of his claws pricking the skin of her back left bare by her dress.

'_No, no, no, no, no…' _

"I'd do anything for you," he pleaded quietly, the despair in his voice thick and heavy. His fingers tensed but his claws never broke the fragile layer of skin. She sighed despondently, holding him to her in a platonic hug as her eyelids finally overflowed and let salty tears slide down her cheeks into his dark hair.

"Just take me home," she replied, wincing as he whined again, his tongue rolling out of his mouth to glide along the ridge of muscle at the base of her neck. When his teeth scraped against her skin, she released him. "Kouga-"

The elevator chimed softly and the doors slid open with a quiet whoosh. She pushed gently against his chest, relieved when he stepped back but unwilling to meet his eyes. She couldn't bear to see the pain she knew lurked behind them. They walked back to the car in silence, Kouga trailing her like a mournful shadow. Standing by the door as she waited patiently for him to unlock it, she sighed as she felt his body encroach on her personal space.

'_Shit.'_

"Um, Kagome," he started hesitantly and she blinked rapidly his sudden change of mood. "Do you have the keys?"

Startled, she glanced up at him to see him staring at the lock of the car in bewilderment. 'He has got to be kidding me.' Apparently, he wasn't, for he bent down and peered into the window, a frown creasing the skin between his brows.

'_Fuck.'_

"No, are they still in the car?" she asked, leaning down and cupping her hands against the glass to reduce the glare of the garage lights on the window. Sure enough, a set of keys dangled from the ignition. Kouga growled and stood, giving the handle a jiggle, then stalking to the driver's side to test that door.

"Damn it!" he swore, pulling his fist back with every intention of breaking the window.

"Kouga!" Kagome protested before his fist could connect with the glass. "You'll cut your hand! Just call a locksmith!"

'_She does care! I knew it!'_

Kouga grinned at her and tossed his ponytail. "Naw, this stupid glass couldn't hurt me!" He pulled his fist back again and Kagome scowled.

"The drive home will be cold!" she reminded him, giving her arms a quick rub to emphasize her point.

"Oh," he lowered his fist gave his keys a brief glower. "Let's go back up, then. I, uh, forgot my cell phone," he explained, rubbing the back of his neck with an abashed grin.

Rolling her eyes, Kagome leaned against the car and crossed her arms over her chest. There was no way she was going back to that party to face the other guests. "I'll wait for you here."

"I won't have my woman-"

"Kouga, _go_!" she all but shouted, choosing to ignore the "my woman" for the moment. The wolf had a rubber hide and a hollow brain…and here she'd thought _Inuyasha_ was obtuse. "I'm in a parking garage! What can happen?" Shaking her head, she crossed her arms and leaned against the car, watching as the wolf strolled back to the elevators and threw her a dashing grin over his shoulder.

'Famous last words,' she thought resignedly several minutes later as the woman in the sequined dress stepped from behind a concrete pillar. Her yellow-green eyes held a wicked glee as she swayed toward Kagome's position by the car, the tiny discs on her dress glimmering gold and emerald green in the dim light of the garage. The woman smiled slowly, revealing a mouthful of needled teeth, her pointed tongue dancing over her lips as if she were tasting the air.

Which was exactly what she was doing, Kagome realized, as she watched the woman's floor length sheath dress bulged oddly at her thighs, then hang slack as an olive green and black patterned tail slithered from beneath the hem to form a thick coil on the ground. Matching diamond-shaped scales began to crawl up her neck, smooth, shiny and completely uncoordinated with the color of her dress. Again, the dress bunched and stretched, and the woman rose a foot in height, balancing on her the coil of her tail. Her tongue flicked out again, now elongated, thin and forked, her fangs lengthening over her bottom lip.

'I thought I'd asked for a _bird_ to kidnap me. I doubt she's here to talk,' Kagome groused to herself as she pushed her purifying power into the one weapon she had on hand: her purse.

"Ssssorry to disssssappoint you," the woman hissed in a distinctly unrepentant tone of voice and tickled the air with her tongue.

Frankly, Kagome had never seen a less sorry looking snake woman. Well, give her a minute with her spiritual purse and she'd see how sorry she was!

"Tell your goons to stay back!" Kagome warned as she felt the telltale signs of lesser youkai encroaching from the left, now knowing them to be threats instead of the late partygoers for which she had mistaken them. Hefting her purse behind her back, she decided that she should have packed a brick along with the wallet, lipstick and wolf ring she'd stuffed into it.

The snake-woman grinned and mocked, "Or you'll what? Hit me with your pursssse?"

Kagome supposed that she should have been a little bit frightened, or at least wary of the situation in which she now found herself, but she just couldn't drum up much fear. Perhaps because a clashing snake-thing with a severe over-bite that wore the _wrong_ shade of lipstick just wasn't that scary. And wait, didn't she sell cosmetics? Kagome almost snorted a laugh when she finally recognized her from the wrinkle cream infomercials.

"I don't want to hurt you," Kagome warned again, and then winced as the woman broke out into a shrill cackle. It wasn't quite true, for she had a strong suspicion that walloping on a hateful youkai with evil on her breath would help relieve a bit of the frustration she'd built up, but she liked to think of herself as a fair-minded person who used violence only as a last resort. Granted, it got her into trouble once in a while, but she'd seen much worse than this woman. Compared to Naraku and his incarnations, she just didn't rank that high on the threat-o-meter.

The woman's laughter ended abruptly, her gloating smile twisting into a sneer as she rose higher on her tail and propped her fists in the vicinity of where her waist would have been, had she not been a giant reptile from the bust, down. "Not threatening, am I?"

'Now that's kinda weird,' Kagome had to admit to herself as the woman once again seemed to answer her thoughts. The first couple of times might have been coincidence, but…

Her train of thought was cut short as two humanoid wasp youkai, complete with iridescent wings, multi-faceted eyes, and rapier-like stingers protruding from their rear ends, descended on her from over the roof of a parked minivan. The size of tall children, they had overly large heads and hips with one pair of legs and two pairs of arms that were disproportionately long and skinny. Kagome grimaced and swung her purse, praying that wasp youkai did not splatter guts like beetle youkai. She did not want to explain to her aunt why her daughter's lovely satin dress was stiff with inhuman gore.

"Watch her purssse!" the snake lady yelled and the wasps lifted out of whacking range, their black lips curled in disdain. They hovered for several moments close together, their antennae tapping and rubbing each other in quick caresses.

This had to be one of the most ridiculous fights in which she had had the displeasure to participate. Kagome sighed, rolling her eyes, and began to twirl her purse by its straps. "Um, guys? Can we finish this up so I can go home? My feet hurt."

Snake-woman hissed, her tongue flicking between her teeth. "Fine, you bipedal little husssssy!" she shouted sibilantly and reached down her plummeting neckline into her scaled cleavage.

"Hey! I am not a hussy!" Kagome yelled back and swiped her purse at the woman who was now brandishing a tiny vial of clear liquid. In an amazing feat of agility, she bowed her midsection out of reach of the glowing pink purse and leaned her upper body forward, depressing the plunger and releasing a cloud of odorless mist into Kagome's face.

Startled, Kagome gasped, instantly knowing that was the wrong thing to do when her world warped, blurred, and then tilted alarmingly to the right. She tilted along with it and was distantly surprised when hitting the pavement didn't hurt as much as it should have. 'Where is that woman's shoes?' the next thought wandered through her mind as olive green and black scales marched by her nose.

"I would have given you a fighting chance, but no!" the woman's nasally voice droned on as if through a long, padded tunnel. "You had to sssspoil it all!"

'Damn it, I didn't even get a good shot in,' Kagome hardly had time to feel irritated with herself before she dropped into unconsciousness.

A/N: _je ne sais quoi_ – French for "I do not know what" and generally refers to some attractive, indescribable quality. Pronounced something like "zh-n say kwah". Sorry, I've always liked French and the idea of Sesshomaru speaking/thinking it is quite yummy. drool


	15. Target Practice

Edited by: thyme-cat

Disclaimer: I do not own any character created by Rumiko Takahashi. I do this for fun, not money.

A/N: Sorry I've been such a bum about answering reviews. I read and appreciate all of them. I'm behind in my reading, too.

I wanted to belatedly thank Snowfall for a bit of help she gave me – it came into play a bit last chapter but really comes later. And Sada, who made contributions of her own to that last chapter. Also, I want to thank Quirkyslayer for the IYFG nom for Best Comedy. I can't believe I've spanned three quarters with this fic. FYI, I plan to wrap it up by Ch. 20. Maybe before.

Chapter 15 – Target Practice 

"I can't believe you didn't tell me you'd found her!"

"Ow!" Inuyasha howled as a bright-eyed young man yanked on a silver ear. "Shippo, damn it! Knock it off!"

"I thought you were my friend!" Twisting the ear in his claws, Shippo glared murder at his one-time traveling companion.

The kitsune had almost skipped the party altogether, not being much of a socialite, but something at the back of his mind had nudged him until he'd conceded with a frustrated sigh, gotten dressed and hopped on the subway. By the time he'd arrived, the party was in full swing and packed with beings, to the point that he didn't realize Kagome was there until the spotlight had illuminated her ethereal form. Stunned speechless with shock and joy, he'd just about peed his pants.

He still didn't know what to think about Kouga's proposal, though he resented the wolf for humiliating her like that. Kagome had seemed panicked and hurt, not how he wanted to see his favorite person for the first time in centuries. Unfortunately, the crowd had separated her from him during her flight from the stage and now he was reduced to bickering with Inuyasha while waiting for the elevator to come back up to the patio level.

With a balled fist, Inuyasha bopped the kitsune over the head, leaving a rising knot and freeing his tortured ear in the process. "I don't answer to you, runt!"

Shippo raised a red eyebrow at Inuyasha's insult; several inches taller than the hanyou with a deep barrel chest, the kitsune was anything but a runt. Wearing heeled boots to compliment his tuxedo, he appeared even taller than Sesshomaru. When asked how it was he grew to such an impressive height, for kitsune were not know for their stature, he credited it to a healthy diet of ninja food and the best of nurturing in his early years. Much to his chagrin, the ladies who usually asked such questions would already be gazing at him in glassy-eyed adoration before he was able to finish the sentence. Inuyasha assured him that chicks just dug his suit, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Inuyasha was just jealous.

"You better not be fighting over her with Kouga, you know how she hates that," Shippo growled down at the hanyou, his glare belied by the excitement bubbling behind his eyes. He couldn't even hold the glare long; after a moment, his face broke out into a wide grin that unintentionally made several passing ladies' hearts melt. Shippo, of course, was oblivious.

Hoshi wasn't and he smiled to himself as he thought of the rave reviews his soiree would be getting the next day. Shippo was always a crowd pleaser, innocent hottie that he was, and added to the excitement of Inuyasha's public scolding, Sesshomaru's "accident", and Kouga's failed attempt at proposing, it was the perfect recipe for a party that would be remembered for months to come! He'd have to make sure Kagome was always invited to his social events.

"Don't tell me you want a taste of sweet Kagome, as well," Hoshi nudged Shippo's arm and gave him a broad wink, relishing the blush that instantly stained his cheeks.

"Wh-what? No! Gah!" Shippo recoiled in horror, his green eyes wide and slightly panicked.

"Reeeeally?" Hoshi laced the word with as much innuendo as he possibly could, which was quite a lot. "Then does that mean you're…?"

"Yes! I mean no! I mean, she's beautiful and all, but," Shippo stumbled over his words in his haste to explain, "she practically raised me!"

"Oh, don't pay attention to that pillow-biter. He's just trying to rile you up," Inuyasha turned back to the elevator doors with a loud snort, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Do I 'rile' you?" leaning in close to one silver triangle, Hoshi let his breath tickle the fine hairs that guarded his ear canal and smirked when the appendage twitched of its own accord.

Inuyasha flinched and pushed the kitsune's face away with a clawed hand. "Don't you have something better to do than fuck with me?" At Hoshi's grin, he was quick to add, "Don't answer that."

XxxxxxxX

Sesshomaru stepped out of the men's room, the door swinging shut behind him as he scanned the party for a dead wolf walking. He'd heard Kouga's proposal over the running of the tap as he tried to wash red wine out of his pants. Though he hadn't been able to discern Kagome's answer, Inuyasha's exclamation had planted a seed of worry in his gut that had, in record time, blossomed into full-grown thistle bush. Had Inuyasha laughed or jeered, the thistle might still be a seedling, but no…he'd sounded _pissed_.

There was only one thing to do, the dog demon decided. To some, it may not seem honorable, but only because they weren't privy to the fact that the miko had belonged to him first. He would kill the wolf, Council be damned, and elope with Kagome. True, he hadn't fully examined this plan for faults like the strategist he was; it had popped into his head only minutes ago as he wrung water out of his slacks. However, uncertain times called for drastic measures and somewhere along the line, this whole miko situation had ceased to be about winning or losing. He wasn't quite sure what it _was _about, but he was positive that he would figure it out once he could take a moment to relax. He was bored with his work and needed a vacation anyway, and it simply wouldn't be worth his effort to deal with the Council and the fallout that would ensue from one member slaying another. Kagome might be a bit put out when he whisked her away from Japan, but she'd come around. He had a certain…talent…when it came to persuasion. _Lots_ of talent. And did he know how to use it! Fortunately, it had gone down enough so that he hadn't caught it in his zipper when donning his now mostly stain-free pants.

Kagome was furious with him; he realized that. And their little encounter had been going so well! He'd smelled her distraction by his body, had been able to read in her face the naughty things she'd been contemplating when she'd run her eyes over his form. She'd resisted in her deliciously innocent, jealous (and at this, he allowed his lips a small curl of satisfaction) feminine way and he had been moving in for the kill when she'd brought up his little wager with Inuyasha. Really, she should've been flattered by his attentions and her ire caught him off guard. Not to be outdone in the airing of skeletons, he'd alluded to her indiscretion with a particular wolf. A blunder; he'd realized it the moment the scent of her hurt had reached his nostrils, but she hadn't given him a chance to rectify it. Instead, she'd caused him a slight…inconvenience (this Sesshomaru was _not_ humiliated) and stalked off, leaving him with a mess to clean.

What a female!

And probably engaged to a fellow Cardinal Lord. That would not do.

He'd play poker, he decided. They would travel the world living on his winnings and christen one posh hotel room after the other. The Jacuzzis, as well. Maybe the elevators. Eventually, she would conceive and they would have to find more permanent accommodations, but that was far in the future. They had plenty of time to work out those details. First things first, prying her out of the wolf's claws and then reacquainting said wolf with his light whip.

Though Kouga was nowhere in sight, he did catch sight of Hoshi mercilessly teasing his half-brother by the elevators. Shippo, flushed with embarrassment, was wringing his long fingered hands and attracting more than his fair share of female attention. Though not the most powerful of youkai, the kitsune was a credit to his race, possessing a strong sense of honor and loyalty. How he had grown into such a handsome adult male and yet not influenced by Inuyasha's swinging lifestyle, Sesshomaru had no idea.

It didn't take a lot of guesswork as to why the trio was gathered by the elevator, so Sesshomaru swept toward them, his refined gait as elegant as ever, daring anyone to mention the pale pink splotch on the crotch of his pants. No one did.

"What do _you_ want?" Inuyasha greeted him with a suspicious glower and pressed the elevator button several times with more force than necessary.

"Are you going after Kagome, too?" Shippo asked, surprise widening his jeweled eyes.

Turning his nose up in the air, Inuyasha turned to face his brother with his arms folded over his chest, "Keh! He ain't invited."

"Inuyasha," Shippo said in a patient, patronizing tone that had nuances of Kagome in it, "it's important to have the support of all of your friends after a distressing experience."

"What's that bullshit you're spouting?" Inuyasha scoffed as he looked askance at the kitsune, who was shaking his head in earnest.

Sesshomaru tuned them out, one eye on the elevator dial as it edged toward the patio floor. Staring straight ahead, his face an emotionless mask, he pretended that the others didn't exist as he contemplated other places in hotels that he and Kagome would employ. Utility closets were right out, but perhaps they could break into the lounge after hours. Yes, they would find a hotel with a white piano in the bar and he would pleasure her on the top with her dark hair splayed over the glistening white finish…

As soon as the elevator chimed, he pushed between his brother and the kitsune, stopping short when he saw Kouga leaning against the back wall, heavy sadness darkening his blue eyes to slate and an irritated scowl twisting his features.

"You!" Inuyasha bellowed and lunged forward, bumping against Sesshomaru's shoulder to land a punch square in the wolf's face. Kouga howled in pain and surprise while clutching his gushing nose. With his free hand, he swung his elbow into Inuyasha's cheek, leaving a rising purple lump. The two males crashed to the floor of the elevator, each trying to wrap his hands around the other's neck. With a heavy sigh and a roll of his eyes, Shippo stepped into the elevator over the struggling bodies and pressed the parking level button.

"What is with you dogs?" Hoshi groused and applied the tip of his pointy-toed boot to one of Inuyasha's kidneys with a firm, quick kick. The hanyou screeched as his back arched with pain and Hoshi wasted no time in planting the heel of that same boot into Kouga's already damaged nose. Howling, Kouga rolled away, clawing at his ruined snout.

"_That_," Sesshomaru sent a bored flick of his eyes toward the wolf, "is not a dog."

Relief had doused the taiyoukai's anxiety like a cool shower after a hard run and he took a moment to savor it before he stepped through, carelessly trodding on the wolf's family jewels as he made his way to the back of the elevator. Ignoring Kouga's laments and pained whimpering, he reflected (with an odd twinge of disappointment that he would have to examine later) that he would not be taking up cards, after all. No male, after having had a female such as Kagome accept his proposal, could look quite so downtrodden. He almost grinned at his own pun, tempted to rub the wolf's bloodied nose (and he silently congratulated Inuyasha on a job well done) in his defeat with another strategically placed foot, but he was Sesshomaru, Lord of the West, and he knew of much better ways to gloat in front of his enemies.

Inuyasha had rolled to one side of the little chamber and was now massaging his back with one hand. "Where the _fuck_ is Kagome, you miserable fleabag," Inuyasha grunted from where he had propped himself against a wall of the elevator.

In too much pain to play coy, Kouga whimpered quietly, and then managed to wheeze, "Car."

Shippo gasped, rounding on the wolf and surprising everyone in the little room. "You mean you left her _alone_? In a _parking garage_?"

"She said-" Kouga started but was cut off by Shippo's angry shout.

"Who cares what she said? Don't you watch TV? They're dangerous, idiot!"

"Oh shit," Inuyasha cursed. "And knowing the Amazing Miko Trouble Magnate…"

Hoshi eyed the two with amusement and shook his head. "Quit clucking, you hens. It couldn't have been five minutes-"

The warm, yellow light that filled the compartment flickered once, and then went out, plunging them in darkness so complete that it was impenetrable to youkai eyes. The compartment shuddered to a halt with a deep, rumbling groan.

Shippo winced. Inuyasha cursed. Kouga whimpered softly. Sesshomaru wished that he had kicked the wolf in the 'nads while he could still see them. Hoshi cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck, "So, this kind of thing happens often, does it?"

XxxxxxX

Kagome had been kidnapped many different times in her short life: twice to be a jewel shard detector, twice for marriage, several times as bait for Inuyasha, and once to be the main ingredient in a youkai hair growth serum. She was sure that she was forgetting another time or two, but she was absolutely positive that this was the first time a demon had nabbed her to pelt her with cereal toys.

She had to admit that she was confused by the motive of this particular miko-napping. What did they hope to gain other than seriously pissing her off? Not to mention Inuyasha, Kouga, and (she hoped) Sesshomaru. Whatever it was, it seemed linked to the Demon Decoder rings. Unfortunately, she'd been much too busy flirting with Sesshomaru in the past or pining for him in the present, not to mention missing her friends and, well, she didn't really need to go into what she'd been doing with Kouga, to analyze the mystery of the rings. It was an oversight that she now regretted.

"Thirty-four! Thirty-four decoder rings! Muahahaha!" her captor bellowed and chucked a yellow plastic ring at her. She sighed as it bounced off her forehead and landed in her lap, along with several other demon decoder rings of assorted colors. Two mouse youkai, who stood on their hind legs but were covered in thick white fur and sported long whiskers, once again broke out into riotous laughter at their leader's wit. Said leader, a raccoon youkai who resembled Hacchi, puffed up his barrel chest and grinned proudly, pulling another decoder ring from a plastic grocery sack at his feet.

"Thirty-six! Thirty-six decoder rings! Muahaha!" He tossed the ring underhanded and it landed neatly in the swag of her neckline, dropping between her breasts. The raccoon pumped a victorious fist in the air while the mice hooted catcalls.

'This is so far beyond stupid,' Kagome sighed to herself.

"You skipped thirty-five," she reminded him as she strained her wrists against the ropes looped around them. She had woken up in what looked like a brick basement tied surprisingly securely to a chair, her ankles bound together and her wrists tied behind her. They hadn't bothered to gag her, implying that screaming wasn't going to do her a lick of good. Not that she hadn't tried anyway, though after her current companions had come pounding down the rickety wooden stairs and had begun their game of throw-shit-at-the-miko, she wished she'd kept her big mouth shut. Of Snake-Woman, she'd seen neither hide nor scale.

"Shut up, human," Pinky, as she had dubbed the mouse on her right, snapped as he pushed her head forward, loosening the knot of hair on her head. "He _meant_ to skip it!"

The raccoon bounded forward, knocking the mouse away. "Don't touch her, you moron! She'll purify you!"

'Not a bad idea,' Kagome agreed with the insult and the sentiment as she rolled her eyes.

The Brain, the mouse on her left, bared long buckteeth at her and then addressed his fellows, "This human is harmless. You heard how easy she was to capture."

"Only because she cheated," Kagome complained, wrinkling her nose and turning her head away from the stench of the rodent's breath.

"Sakishima-sama don't cheat!" the raccoon shouted in her face.

"Oh yeah? Then what do you call spraying poison in your opponent's face?" she snapped rhetorically…or at least she _intended _it to be rhetorical. Apparently, she'd stumped her captors, as they all wore identically thoughtful (if they could be called that) expressions.

"Uhhhh…" Pinky scratched one of the rounded ears on the top of his head, "A facial?"

The Brain smacked him upside the head with a mocking snort, "No, nitwit, that's with _steam_."

"Oh," Pinky nodded sagely, his whiskered eyebrows still a bewildered knot on his brow.

"Hasn't Sakishima-sama taught you anything?" The raccoon inquired scathingly as he folded his paws into the voluminous sleeves of this shirt, which distinctly reminded Kagome of a beautician's gown. She squeezed her eyes shut, just in case her brain decided to wake up from whatever strange, surreal dream her subconscious had decided to foist upon her. She was probably on her Aunt's couch, dozing in front of late night infomercials, and this was all a product of a bag of extra-buttery popcorn, diet cola, and a crick in her neck. She'd better wake up soon, too, because she didn't want a mud mask forced on her by rodents. Or, heaven forbid, a seaweed wrap.

"So what _do_ you call spraying poison-" Pinky yelped in time with a heavy thump and Kagome cracked an eyelid to see him sprawled on the floor, a small dune of decoder rings burying his head and scattered about on the cement. The mouse groaned and shook his head, sending more rings flying. One bounced off her shin and landed by her foot. So much for being a dream.

"Somebody get me out of here!" Kagome hollered, craning her neck toward the basement stairs, not really caring who would come down them, as long as it wasn't the yahoos squabbling about whose fault it was that the bag broke.

"Sakishima-sama is _soooo_ gonna kill you!" Pinky muttered from the floor, plucking a ring out of his ear.

"Not as much as she's gonna kill you for-"

Raccoon was cut off by a strangled squeak from The Brain, "She's coming! Quick!"

Three pairs of youkai eyes widened and Kagome would later swear that their fur paled slightly as they scooped up handfuls of rings and tossed them on her.

"Inuyasha!" she screamed as a last resort, dozens of rings pelting her on the head and tumbling down her shoulders, some landing in her lap, some sliding down her dress, but each one a humiliating annoyance that only served to convince her that she must have done something horrible in a past life to suffer through something this ridiculous. Straining against her bonds, she hopped in her chair, not really expecting to gain anything but unwilling to take this shit sitting still.

Where was that dog when she needed him, anyway? Not that she particularly _wanted_ to be rescued; these youkai were weak to the point of pathetic and wouldn't have provided much of a challenge had she not been tied to a chair. She would much prefer it if someone simply untied her so that she could rain down some good, old-fashioned, Inuyasha-style waling onto their thick skulls.

As fate would have it, she hopped a little too energetically and one of the chair's legs fell into a crack in the cement. It wobbled for a moment and everyone held their breath as the chair teetered precariously on two legs. Knowing how this would turn out, Kagome braced for impact, not disappointed when her shoulder hit the floor painfully hard, the clatter of wood on cement an unnecessary reminded that she was still attached to the chair.

"Owwww," she groaned under the laughter of her captors. Oh, were they going to get it. They were going to _wish_ that she'd purified them. She didn't know exactly _what_ she'd do besides the waling, but whatever it was, it would be painful. And long.

The basement door banging open interrupted Kagome's dark thoughts and a familiar, sibilant voice hissed into the gloom, "What is going on down here?"

Unfortunately, due to her current position (being trussed to a chair and laying on her side) Kagome could not turn her head to send a baleful glare at Sakishima. Instead, she settled for trying to melt the decoder ring by her nose into a puddle of green goo with the heat of her scowl. She wanted an explanation _now_.

"N-nothing, Sakishima-sama! Just doing like you said!" Raccoon would have been shaking in his boots, had he been wearing any. As it was, his claws clicked against the cement and his tail stuck straight out behind him, bushy as a bottlebrush.

Kagome squirmed futilely against the ropes, "You're going to regret this!"

"Oh, I very much doubt that," Sakishima replied as the stairs creaked under her weight. Kagome didn't like not being able to watch her descend, for an unseen enemy is a more dangerous enemy, but as far as she could tell, the snake woman had reformed her legs. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Her suspicion was confirmed when two open-toed Italian leather pumps entered her field of view.

Rotating her neck, Kagome glared up at the woman who was now bending toward her. She tried not to flinch when long, manicured fingers pinched a ring out of her hair. "Now, let's see if my work was in vain," she said with a slick, confident smile that belied her words.

Straightening, she held the purple ring between her thumb and forefinger and cocked her head slightly to the side. Her slitted pupils slid to Kagome and she grinned, revealing sharp, tiny fangs. "Yesssss," she hissed gleefully. "Sometimes, even I am surprised by my own brilliance. I think I'll keep you," she leered down at Kagome with a mouthful of malice. Kagome shuddered.

"Get the van ready, we're moving!" Sakishima snapped, bending down again to paw through the drift of decoder rings.

Her minions were quick to agree with bobbing, groveling little bows that reminded her of a certain green imp, which, in turn, reminded her of a rather splendid dog demon. She supposed that if she _were_ to be rescued, then she wouldn't mind if Sesshomaru made an appearance. He would make a dashing figure, provided that he changed his pants (and she couldn't quite contain a small smirk at the look on his face when she'd poured wine on his crotch), and it would make up for him being such a snarky asshole. Not that she _needed _rescuing, because she didn't. She was the Priestess of the Jewel of Four Souls, housing that sacred item within her own body! She could do with a bit of untying, though.

Sakishima chuckled as she pulled a familiar blue ring out of the pile, displaying it under Kagome's nose before she straightened. "Waiting to be rescued, are we?" she sneered.

"No," Kagome informed her somewhat untruthfully.

Grinning, the snake woman cocked her head and regarded Kagome with cold, gloating eyes. "By the dog whose pride you injured? Or by the hanyou you abused? Or how about the wolf that you fucked and then denied?" She motioned to her minions to clean up the rest of the rings as she stood triumphantly over Kagome's immobile form. "I'm sure they'd _rush _to come to _your_ rescue," she drawled sarcastically.

'She's just trying to scare you,' Kagome told herself as she tried to ignore the fact that Sakishima had been correct on all points. That woman knew too much for her own good.

She squirmed in her bindings, guilt and dread twisting into an ugly knot in her stomach as she recalled a certain omission she had committed during her last weeks in the Feudal Era. She should have _known_ that it would come back to bite her in the ass. Why had she assumed that the problem would just go away? Why hadn't she warned someone the minute she had known she was carrying a potential weapon that saw into the minds of others?

Because she hadn't been thinking! She'd gotten carried away with her newfound power and had exploited it for her own selfish desires. Though she'd had circumstantial evidence, she'd never actually _seen _anyone else use the rings like she did and she hadn't bothered to find out if they _could._ Neither Souta nor Kouga had mentioned anything out of the ordinary, such as mass bouts of telepathy, so perhaps she'd simply assumed that they worked only for her? Whatever the reason, she felt blindingly stupid. However, with the hope of the fiercely optimistic (and don't forget foolish!), she tried to convince herself that there was _no way_ that Snake-Woman could have what she thought she had. It had been five hundred years ago, for crying out loud!

"You don't know anything about it," Kagome snapped, though her voice quavered with uncertainty for it was quite obvious that the woman _did _know something. And she had known something in the parking garage, as well.

"That's where you're wrong. You see, I _do_ know." Reaching into a pocket of her coat, Sakishima pulled out something much more terrifying than anything the woman had done to this point: a dingy white plastic ring. Slipping it onto her pinky finger, she waggled it under the harsh light of the basement lamp and eyed it appraisingly. "I know everything _you_ know. And soon," she slid the new blue ring next to the battered white one, "I'll know everything _he_ knows."


	16. The Chemistry of Elevator Floors

Chapter 16 - The Chemistry of Elevator Floors

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Edited by thyme is a cat

A/N: It's been a while hasn't it? I won't even begin to make excuses, but I would like to thank all of you who sent emails and encouraging reviews to get me to work on it. It really did help, I promise.

* * *

Chapter 16 - The Chemistry of Elevator Floors

The pulsing of the Miko Receiver in Sesshomaru's pocket was lessening in intensity; not too quickly, but enough to send worry, like droplets of icy water, sliding down his spine. Having been witness to some of the miko's misadventures (and sometimes the cause), he knew that she had not simply hopped the next train home. He blinked sightlessly in the unforgiving darkness, wondering how furious she would be if he simply leashed her to his bed to keep her out of trouble. Probably quite a bit. Ah well.

"Check the breaker! The one on the left!" Hoshi snapped into his cell phone, the dim, blue glow of the front panel the only light in the little chamber. That is, until Sesshomaru willed his doukasou into his claws, and they flared to garish, green life.

"The one marked 'elevator'. Hey!" The kitsune almost dropped his phone when the first drop of glowing poison hit the floor with an acrid sizzle. "Do you know what that will do to the floor?" he hissed in horror, placing his palm over the mouthpiece.

Sesshomaru ignored him, flexing his fingers as a steady trickle of the corrosive fluid splattered against the floor, and the elevator began to fill with the smell of molten metal.

"I hope she's okay," Shippo spoke quietly, wringing unseen hands. No one answered, all thinking the same thing.

Hoshi's cell squawked, and he shot an unseen glare at the taiyoukai before saying, "Then throw those switches, too! Don't leave my guests in the dark! And find the asshole responsible!"

"Hurry the fuck up, Sesshomaru" Inuyasha grated unnecessarily from his corner of the elevator. Only his eyes were visible, glowing in the reflected light of technology and youkai magic. Still seated against the wall, he aimed his foot for Kouga's head. He didn't need to see the wolf to hit him; his faint whimpers revealed his location with more than enough accuracy. Even the kick was unnecessary, as Kouga was obviously beating himself up for his own stupidity. The stupid git sounded like he was mourning a mate, which might have been exactly what he was doing: mourning the mate that he couldn't claim. Inuyasha kicked him again for the audacity of even trying to mate Kagome. Snarling, he kicked him a third time, remembering that the wolf had actually succeeded.

What to do with the girl, he wondered as he watched his half-brother's poison melt a smoldering, smoking hole in the floor, the poison now lighting up the elevator like a campfire of raver glow wands. He didn't want her as his mate. To be honest, he didn't really want a mate at all. He enjoyed the company of his females and had no desire to settle down with one female for the rest of his life. Not that he would deny her if she wanted to join his household: far from it. But if he didn't mate her, then some other male would, an idea that set his teeth on edge. Growling, he glared at the hole and wished it would finish melting already.

"You're going to replace that, you know. This is a historical building." Hoshi snapped at Sesshomaru as he flicked shut his phone and stuffed it in his pants pocket. "And I don't know what the hurry is; the power will be back on in a minute."

Inuyasha watched his brother's face tense, a slight tightening around the eyes and mouth, a twitching of the jaw muscle so small that none but the taiyoukai's closest associates would notice the changes in his expressionless face. As much as he was eager to get the hell out of the elevator and start kicking ass, his brother's demeanor disturbed him. He couldn't remember the last time the bastard gave a flying fuck about anything. Was he so intent on winning their five hundred year-old bet that he'd become unhinged?

Finally, the hole was large enough to admit a well-built male youkai, and Inuyasha climbed to his feet, stomping over to the entrance. "Yo, bastard."

Sesshomaru gave him a terse glance and then eyed the hole without responding. Inuyasha shivered with a deep sense of strangeness.

"The fuck is wrong with you?" the hanyou asked with his usual tact and sensitivity. His ears twitched as he watched the muscle in his brother's jaw knot under the skin. Without a word or final glance backward, the taiyoukai stepped into the hole and disappeared from sight. Taken aback, Inuyasha shouted after him, "Hey! Where are you going? Damn it!"

"Down, Inuyasha. Let's go get her." Shippo laid a firm hand on his shoulder, giving him an odd, pitying look, then hopped into the hole after Sesshomaru. Gaping as he stared into the oubliette of an elevator shaft, Inuyasha wondered if perhaps someone had slipped crazy pills into his drink while he hadn't been looking. If he hadn't known better, he would have said his brother looked _worried_… but that couldn't be right. And why the hell would the runt be feeling sorry for him?

Snapping out of his confusion, he shouted into the dark, "I am! But—"

Hoshi chuckled from his corner of the elevator, which was once again engulfed in blackness now that the face of his cell phone had winked out. "Unless you'd rather stay here and go down—"

Inuyasha didn't bother to listen to the rest of that sentence before jumping through the hole and into the long darkness of the elevator shaft.

Groaning with more dramatics than necessary, a momentarily forgotten wolf uncurled from his less than dignified ball and moved to sit up, but was stopped by an unforgiving foot on his throat. "Ah ah ah, time to let the puppies play," Hoshi teased in a light tone belied by the force of his heel on Kouga's Adam's apple. "You had your chance."

"But Kagome—" the wolf started to protest and was quickly silenced by a bit of localized pressure.

"Doesn't need you," Hoshi stated firmly. Then, because his favorite subject of harassment was no longer available, he added, "Besides, I think the West has plans for that tasty bite of miko."

"That flea-bitten mongrel, I'll—"

"And she could barely keep her hands off him, so I hear," Hoshi finished with a conspiratorial giggle and a dig of his heel into already abused wolf flesh. To his disappointment, the fight seemed to flood out of Kouga with a low groan. "Buck up, Kouga; you might get another chance! I'll bet money that they have beautiful pups."

Kouga resumed his fetal position.

* * *

The thing about ridiculously stupid bad guys, Kagome mused to herself as she bumped around the back of the van on her side, still tied to a chair, was that they made ridiculously stupid mistakes. A fact in which she took great comfort after coming to grips with her own stupid mistake. Granted, it was something that any hormonal teenager might have done if presented with the opportunity to see into the mind of a handsome, admiring dog demon, assuming said teenager would not have run screaming the other way first.

Kagome winced as the van's back wheel found another pothole, and she was tossed painfully across the floor of the van, her hair snagging on one of the many unidentifiable bits of junk that were her traveling companions.

'What have I done?' Kagome sighed in self-disappointment as she wiggled and slid herself back into position, feeling with her fingers for the jagged piece of metal that she was using to slice through the cords around her wrists. Sakishima had the blank ring that read human minds, obviously. So, she had either found it after Kagome had tossed it over Sango's wall or she'd acquired it from the creature who had. A darkened, blurry silhouette of a snake creature against the fire in the well house rose in her mind, and she shuddered, suspecting the former. The snake-woman could have picked it out of the river, used it to cause trouble for Sango, and then listened to her own thoughts, discovering the origins of the rings and the existence of others. Had she plotted through time, waiting for the final clue of Kagome's passage back to the future and then destroyed it? It made sense, Kagome supposed, as it would effectively remove the threat of her discovering Sakishima's secret and going back to the past to stop her.

Then again, perhaps she was giving the snake woman more credit than she was due. She _did_ employ idiots who left sharp objects in reach of bound prisoners, after all.

Kagome grinned through the ache in her shoulders as the bindings on her wrists finally slackened. With another mighty squirm, she freed them of the cords and positioned herself so that she could saw through the ropes binding her shoulders to the back of the chair.

How had the rings come into existence in the first place? Kagome desperately wanted to know. Apparently, Sakishima assumed that Kagome had something to do with it, if her recent kidnapping and use as a target for a ring toss was any indication. Was it her touch that activated the mind-reading ability?

The van swung around a corner, and Kagome slid away from the instrument of her freedom. In a fit of pained, sweaty, frustrated pique, she wished that her captors had used proper demon ropes so that she could have just purified them already. As soon as the thought had formed, she realized she was now nose to a barber's folded straight razor that had somehow fallen out of wherever it had been kept.

Stupid, stupid villains. Not that Kagome was complaining. Not at all!

Squirming and grunting, she pulled one arm to the front and pushed against the floor of the van with the edges of her feet until the razor was in reach of her hand. Unsurprisingly, she nicked herself opening it, but watched in pleased satisfaction as the ropes at her shoulders quickly frayed under her awkward application of the blade.

Paying somewhat more attention to the razor than she had to the jagged metal, she puzzled through her involvement with strange powers being cast on inanimate objects. She could charge arrows (or her purse) with spiritual energy, but that didn't explain how Demon Decoder rings pulled out of a cereal box could suddenly become _exactly that_…

Oh shit.

What had she said to Souta that morning? Stilling the progress of the razor, she squeezed her eyes shut and thought back to a morning of an annoying younger brother and surprises in her breakfast cereal.

"_It's on the box, genius," Souta tapped the side of the cereal box next to the words, "Demon Decoder Ring Inside!" and a picture of chubby, grinning rabbit holding what looked like a cheap mood ring. "One would think that a girl who spent the last three years traveling to Feudal Japan to fight demons and restore a magic jewel would be less squeamish!"_

"_No one asked you!" Kagome snapped as she snatched up the box to get a better look at the picture. With a small frown, she set the box back on the table. "Demon Decoder Ring, my Aunt Fanny. I wish it were that easy." _

And she'd really wished it _had_ been that easy: as easy as decoding the mind of a dog hanyou with whom she'd wanted to move a relationship to the next level. It had been a selfish, careless, wistful sort of wish, but made dangerous by an unpredictable magic jewel lodged somewhere under her ribcage that seemed to have taken the opportunity to fuck with her.

Just as it had since the day she'd turned fifteen.

Well, Kagome Higurashi was tired of being fate's butt-of-all-jokes. She didn't even _want_ to be rescued, at this point. She would take care of this herself and, hopefully, no one else would have to find out about this messy ring business.

With a determined nod of her head, hampered as it was by the waffled metal of the van's floor, Kagome resumed her work with the razor, a grim smile stretching her lips. Yes, she would free herself, soundly punish her captors, destroy each and every decoder ring she could find… except for maybe one dog ring…

The ropes around her shoulder finally slackened, and she shrugged them off with an indulgent groan of aching pleasure. Hunching her shoulders in a long, overdue stretch, she sighed. No, not even one dog ring could survive. If she were going to do anything about a certain dog demon, then she'd have to do it on her own. She _could_ do it on her own. That is, if she really _wanted_ to… and if _he_ still wanted to… maybe he didn't, after all this time…

A sharp lurch in the van's progress tossed her to the side, interrupting her thread of self-doubt and forcing the blade of the razor against the tender skin of her palm. Kagome hissed in pain as a sticky wetness made the handle of the blade slippery in her hand. Grumbling a series of colorful words that would have shocked Kouga had he been present to hear them, she bent over her knees to cut through the ropes binding her ankles. She had managed to sever two loops when another swerve and the distinctive sound of an engine rumbling to a stop froze her heart mid-beat. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead as she realized the second step of her plan had come much quicker than she'd expected.

With renewed haste, she fumbled with the blade to slice through the last of the ropes, the feat made tricky by the blood now coating the razor's handle and most of her hand. She tried to ignore the dark stains smearing the ropes and, damn it all, her cousin's satin dress.

One of the two backdoors swung open, flooding the van with bright, yellow light. Kagome had an instant to wonder exactly how long she'd been in her captor's clutches before leaping out of the darkness with a furious roar (she'd been going for tiger but accomplished something more like cat-that-had-its-tailed-pulled) and brandished the bloody, purity-charged razor in the face of The Brain.

Squeaking in surprised terror, the mouse demon lunged backward, his tail whipping around to tangle between her feet. Slightly off-balance after her plunge from the van, Kagome yelped (another distinctly un-tiger-like sound) and toppled forward onto the quivering mouse. Unfortunately for The Brain, Kagome was full to over-brimming with adrenaline and spiritual power, and the dim-witted creature burst into glittering, purple dust before he was able to break her fall.

"Ow," Kagome complained in deference to her skinned elbows. Alarmed shouts coming from the front of the van encouraged her to scramble to her feet, the razor held defensively in front of her. Deciding that caution was the better part of valor when kidnapped and outnumbered, Kagome flattened herself against the backdoor that had remained closed and tried not to breathe too loudly, scanning her surroundings with wide, anxious eyes.

She was in a bamboo forest at the terminus of a narrow, overgrown, dirt road. A compound of small, traditional houses was tucked away amongst the trunks, their rice-paper walls and shingled roofs somehow managing to blend with the vibrant green of the forest. Several other nondescript, white vans were parked close by, and it was to the nearest that Kagome darted, her body hunched over in a crouch and her hands full of dress as she ran. Skirting the back of the van, she paused momentarily as Sakishima's voice, shrill in anger, rang through the forest, punctuated by the slamming of the van door. Kagome grinned as she sprinted along the side of the van and around the front of the next.

A sliding, wooden door smacked open, and Kagome threw herself to the ground, rolling the last few feet of driveway under the low-hanging branches at the edge of the forest. Just in time, too, for heavy feet pounded down wooden stairs as Sakishima screamed for assistance.

"Get out here, you idiots! My miko is on the loose! She can't have gone far!"

Peeking through the leaves, she watched a number of youkai, many with strong animal features, lumbering toward the incensed snake-woman who was waving her arms and shouting at the rapidly growing, chaotic mob. None of them seemed very bright, if their slack-jawed expressions were any indication, and a couple actually climbed into the van where she had been held.

She'd have to make a run for it; there was no helping it. Alone, she could not confront a dozen youkai, and to be perfectly honest, her goal was to escape anyway. She figured that she had a decent chance if she got rid of the dress. Though not enamored of the thought of running through the woods in nothing but a strapless, low-backed bra, panties and hose, the dress was a definite hindrance. As quickly and quietly as she could, she undid the zipper and shimmied out of the clingy material, then slunk backward into the woods, keeping her eyes fixed on the melee on the road and using her hands to feel her way. A group of three youkai appeared to be heading her way, so she crouched down further and tried to use the slim trunks of the bamboo as cover.

Faster than she had expected, her view of the road and her pursuers was obscured by foliage. With a silent prayer to any god that might be listening, Kagome straightened and dashed into the woods.

* * *

Sesshomaru grinned fiercely into the whistling wind, knowing that no one else could see and enjoying the immense freedom that the skies allowed. This was what a taiyoukai should be doing: hurtling through the morning to rescue his mate, not signing forms in triplicate and faxing them to Marketing. He just wished he had a sword, any sword, which he could use to smite the cretins who took Kagome. His poison-tipped claws would work as well, but there was something ultimately gratifying about wielding a long, sharp piece of metal and skewering one's enemy on the point. He had read something regarding males and poking things with phallic symbols, and he freely admitted it: he derived great satisfaction from shoving his pointy bits into things, in more ways than one. In this case, his claws would have to suffice as the first pointy bits, then he would secure Kagome and make use of his more interesting bits. Not that anything of that size could be considered a _bit_.

That she had been kidnapped he had no doubt. After escaping the elevator shaft, he had led the small rescue party on a brief survey of the parking garage, finding Kagome's purse, but no Kagome. He had also caught the faint scent of a poison that could not have been good for her, and he'd made a point to rub it in Inuyasha's face that the hanyou couldn't smell it. It had helped keep his mind off the needled claws of panic that were playing him like a harp.

Flying on his silver cloud as Inuyasha and Shippo leapt from rooftop to rooftop far below, Sesshomaru raced after the signal of the Miko Receiver. Its movement had paused for a while after they had escaped the elevator, and he had been sure that they had been closing in on their prey when it had begun to move again. It was drawing them to the edge of the city, and soon, the two lesser youkai would run out of buildings to vault. Sesshomaru didn't mind if Inuyasha or Shippo lagged behind, would prefer it, in fact, for it left all of the exciting stuff to him. However, he had been unwilling to waste the time convincing those two that they were unnecessary baggage and settled his irritation by reminding himself that Kouga had been left far behind. If it had been possible, he would have condensed his form into a ball of energy and blasted through the ether, but as the Miko Receiver also would have lost its matter, it wouldn't have been much help. He made a mental note to devise a way of knowing her precise location at all times; the chaining-to-the-bed idea was looking better and better.

Sesshomaru had just gotten to a particularly steamy part of a fantasy that had begun with a spectacularly bloody massacre of faceless enemies, an eternally grateful (and naked) Kagome falling into his arms and proclaiming her undying affection for his magnificent person, and then worshiping her willing body until he got a cramp in his tongue – when the Miko Receiver went abruptly dead.

Sesshomaru almost fell out of the sky.

"Oy, bastard! The _fuck_ is wrong with you?" Inuyasha hollered over the wind as a forceful jump brought him level with his brother. To his chagrin, Sesshomaru had fallen a good distance.

"Is it the ring? Has something happened?" Shippo shouted up to them, still climbing in altitude and shooting the taiyoukai a concerned glance. Inuyasha scowled, muttering obscenely. The hanyou had _not_ been pleased to learn that not only did he have a way of tracking Kagome, he had been tracking her for some time. The only thing that had prevented a good, old-fashioned, brotherly brawl was the fact that Kagome was quite probably in serious danger. Sesshomaru had then pointed out that it was his Receiver that now allowed them to track her, and no, Inuyasha could not hold it. Apparently, the hanyou was still sulking.

"Don't tell me you've lost her." Seemingly unconsciously, Inuyasha was rolling up his sleeves, his silver ears laid back aggressively.

Sesshomaru gave his brother a cold look as his dinner began to curdle in his stomach. He _wouldn't_ tell him that he'd lost her because this Sesshomaru didn't _lose_ his possessions; nor did he misplace mates. He would also not admit to the failure of his device.

"I caught her scent," he finally lied, eyeing his brother with affected disdain that he, inferior hanyou that he was, had not smelled her.

Inuyasha frowned truculently and then glared at the trees below them. "I don't smell anything," he growled suspiciously.

"Nor I," Shippo added, scanning the trees with a bemused expression.

"I would not expect you to." Sesshomaru dipped each word in condescension as he filtered the wind through his admitted superior olfactory glands and hoped that he would catch her scent soon.

As luck would have it, the tantalizing perfume of her sweat clung to a tiny updraft, and he honed in on it, rocketing toward it without a word to his posse. With a loud curse from Inuyasha and an indignant squawk from Shippo, they changed their courses mid-leap, chasing after him as fast as they could.

Sesshomaru saw to it that it wasn't nearly fast enough.


	17. Dressed for Success

Edited by thyme is a cat

Disclaimer: Don't own it.

Chapter 17 – Dressed for Success

Sesshomaru was plunging down into the forest full tilt boogey when he realized that several other scents warranted his attention. One was the tangy, coppery scent of blood, and his vision burned as red as the liquid in question to think that it might have been spilled from Kagome. The other scents were those of lesser rodent youkai – nothing more than snacks, really. And eat them he would if there were any way he could pin Kagome's kidnapping or injury on them. Even if he couldn't, he might just eat them on principle. Flying made him peckish.

He had just broken the canopy of bamboo, deciding that Rat Tar-tar with Wolf Sauce would make a fine lunch, when his sharp eyes caught a glimpse of the source of youkai scents. A group of five mice was darting through the thick, green stalks of bamboo, pointed snouts twitching over the ground as they tracked their prey. It didn't take much effort to come to the conclusion that they were hunting Kagome. Grinning with murder in his golden eyes, Sesshomaru changed course to meeting them, willing energy into his fingertips and drawing back his right hand to let fly his acid whip. Unfortunately for his surprise attack, Inuyasha entered the forest on his tail, crashing into the trees with an obscenity loud enough to wake their long dead father.

The mice youkai squealed and scattered, darting into the forest in random directions. One particularly stupid rodent attempted to cram himself into a small hole in the forest floor. With hastily (and belatedly) applied youkai magic, he managed to widen the hole enough to wiggle half of his body into his makeshift sanctuary, but Inuyasha chose that spot to land, and booted his furry, gray ass.

Deciding that he'd leave the mice youkai to Inuyasha and Shippo (who had yet to make an appearance), Sesshomaru, who had halted his descent when Inuyasha had fouled his attack, landed silently and then darted into the trees after Kagome's scent. He was now quite certain that the blood-scent was hers because all the mouse blood was freshly spilt, and he had yet to catch the scent of another human. He was a bit embarrassed to think that he was so out of practice hunting that it had taken him so long to come to that conclusion, and he added that to the list of things to which he wouldn't admit. He was just consoling himself with the reminder that Inuyasha had yet to pick up her scent at all when a ferocious hanyou roar startled the birds out of the nearby trees, and his ears picked up the sound of Inuyasha tearing through ancient stalks of bamboo toward him.

Ah, well. He simply had to run a little faster.

* * *

Panting, sweaty, and covered in red, stinging scratches, Kagome sprinted through the bamboo forest congratulating herself on an escape well-accomplished. She figured that if she just kept running (or walking, because she also had a stitch in her side that was threatening to pinch her in half), she would eventually find a road. They had brought her here in a van, after all, and vans needed roads to travel. A road would mean kindly strangers (or not, but she could deal with them), clothing, and breakfast. Sakishima _would_ get hers, just as soon as Kagome was properly dressed, fed, and had an appropriately pain-inflicting weapon.

The only real flaw in her plan was her still-bleeding hand and the fact that she was running from a pack of youkai that could smell blood. Well, she _assumed_ that they could smell it; it seemed to be a common trait among youkai. However, her captors were incredibly dense, and the fact that she had managed to escape into the woods bleeding meant that they probably couldn't hunt down a jar of peanut butter in a sack of groceries.

Oh, did a peanut butter sandwich sound good.

Unconsciously slowing to a walk as she clutched her cramped side, Kagome was pondering whether she would prefer jam, honey or sliced bananas on her sandwich when the ground in front of her exploded upward.

Baring tiny, sharp teeth at her in a hiss that was meant to be intimidating, the mole youkai that lunged out of the hole waved ten enormous, claw-tipped fingers at her. This youkai was an odd blend of animal and biped, having human-shaped eyes and a long, thick mane of brown hair. It had too many teeth for its slightly pointed jaw, and its hands and feet were twice as big as its face, not even counting the claws. As if in compensation for its extremities, it had stubby arms and legs. In blue jeans and a black tea-shirt, it resembled a Killer Klown in civvies.

Dodging out of the way of an uprooted stalk of bamboo that bounced from trunk to trunk as it fell, Kagome wondered at the propensity of youkai, both lesser and greater, to announce their arrival in the most dramatic method possible, then give their opponent time to prepare with a demonstration of their offensive attributes. Verily, the mole was still wiggling its oversized claws at her when she snatched a longish, dead branch of bamboo from the forest floor and infused it with purifying energy, swinging before the youkai decided to attack.

With a startled squeal, the mole youkai dodged her blow, diving back into the ground and burrowing out of sight. The ground rumbled beneath her feet, and Kagome turned a cautious circle in place, weapon held at the ready, her eyes scanning the vibrating earth for the mole's next egress. The forest waited with her, the vibrant green canopy oddly still and hushed.

Behind her, the ground burst upward and then cascaded down in a shower of dirt and debris, and Kagome spun in a crouch, lashing out with her charged stick. Simultaneously, a blue and white blur shot between her and her enemy, and her weapon connected with something that howled in pain as the white blur and brown mole collided and struck the ground hard. Not waiting to see what this new horror sent to capture her could be, she gave the tussling pile of youkai a good wallop with her glowing branch of bamboo. It was then that she recognized the singed scrap of midnight blue fabric lying on the forest floor.

In Kagome's defense, no human, not even a miko carrying the Jewel of Four Souls in her side, that tired, hungry and in pain could think clearly. Nor was she used to being rescued by a silent savior, Inuyasha being the type of youkai to give his enemies plenty of warning by shouting a lot. Turning horrified eyes back to the fight, Kagome finally placed the youkai that rolled past her like a magenta-and-white-striped dinner mint as he tore the arms off the mole all the while it screamed bloody murder.

"Oops!" she squeaked and then flinched as pieces of mole were flung away from the battleground and out of sight. Sprinting toward the taiyoukai that had ended up sprawled on his back on the forest floor, she dropped to her knees beside him. Arching over one white, muscled shoulder was a wide, angry welt of blackening flesh. "Oh, Sesshomaru, I'm so sorry!"

Sesshomaru had intended to rise gracefully to his feet, flex his well-developed pectoral muscles, and pretend that he hadn't noticed her miko's burn. However, he found that this position, with her on her knees staring concernedly into his eyes as she smoothed white hairs out of his face… Holy hell, what was she wearing? His fantasy had been made flesh!

His eyes fixed to the swell of breasts that were fighting to fall out of a contraption made of burgundy lace and boning, leaving her shoulders and midriff bare. A matching triangle of lace did little to hide her feminine mysteries, but quite a lot to his masculine sense of purpose. Circling her creamy thighs were bands of black lace attached to shimmering black hose, which now had several runs to the tops. Sesshomaru made a commitment to tongue each and every one of those runs (there were sure to be more where her legs where folded beneath her) before removing the stockings.

"Sesshomaru?" she asked, her voice trembling the tiniest bit. Was she afraid that she'd truly injured _him_? A Taiyoukai? He groaned quietly as her gentle fingers smoothed over his chest, fluttering over the smoldering flesh. "Sit up so that I can take a look at the wound on your back."

She rose to her knees and urged him to sit up by pulling on his shoulders. This new position put her cleavage directly under his nose, and not one to spurn such opportunities when they presented themselves, he simultaneously rose to a sitting position, planted his nose between her breasts and hoisted her onto his lap with a firm grip on her bare buttocks. She was wearing _those_ kinds of panties.

Kagome squealed and squirmed, and Sesshomaru sighed in bliss to have this armful of warm woman-flesh unhurt in his lap. The tang of her blood was still sharp in the air, but it had come from a slice on the palm of her hand and was in no way life-threatening. If fact, he looked forward to some palm licking in his near future. He would clean her palm first, then move onto her stockinged legs, then—

"KAGOME!"

Inuyasha came crashing through the trees like a stampede of buffalo, and with his typical acumen and attention to details, assumed that Kagome was in dire need of rescuing. If Sesshomaru's hunting and tracking skills were a tad dusty, then Inuyasha's were buried under three feet of peat moss. With a deafening war whoop, Inuyasha bounded across the forest floor… and stuck his foot in a mole hole. His momentum threw him forward through the air, and the whoop turned into a wail as he sailed ungracefully toward them. Twisting her neck to see the commotion and hopefully stop Inuyasha before he did something stupid, Kagome had enough time to shriek before he plowed into her back and pushed both her and Sesshomaru to the ground.

"Idiot," Sesshomaru growled below her. Kagome wheezed in agreement against his very naked chest, the wind having been knocked out of her by an inuyoukai sandwich.

Inuyasha groaned above her and shifted slightly. "Why didn't you get her the fuck out of the way?"

He seemed to be in some sort of discomfort, but she couldn't figure out why. After all, it was _he_ who had fallen on _her_. Them, she reminded herself as Sesshomaru shifted and nudged her with his hips. She would have protested had she been able to form a sentence or, perhaps, breathe.

"Get off," Sesshomaru grunted and smacked Inuyasha in the back with one long, white arm. Kagome wondered why he was still laying there so complacently instead of pushing them both off with a scathing comment. He nudged her again, and Kagome came to the realization that he _liked_ this position. A lot. And from the feeling of things above, so did Inuyasha.

"Come to think of it, why was Kagome in your lap?" Leveraging himself with his arms, Inuyasha slid up her body to look down into the bored face of his brother, bringing his groin directly in line with Kagome's bottom. She managed a horrified squeal and squirm, and Inuyasha groaned again and flexed his hips. Sesshomaru seemed to come to the same conclusion Kagome had, rather belatedly in her opinion, and grabbed the hanyou by the scruff of his neck and tossed him to the side.

Gasping in great breaths of sweet air, Kagome relaxed against the firm muscles of Sesshomaru's chest, finally able to enjoy the pectorals under her cheek now that she wasn't being squashed into a miko pancake. By the gods, was she tired.

Both ignored Inuyasha's cursing until he shouted her name again from several feet away.

"Kagome! What the hell are you wearing? Get off that bastard!"

Kagome sighed. "Sit." Inuyasha hit the ground with a loud, hollow thump and a strangled shout, and Sesshomaru's rumbling chuckle vibrated through her body. It was then that she remembered what it was that she was actually wearing. Her face flamed in mortification, and she hid her face in her hands as she tried to slide from atop Sesshomaru. One of his arms caught her about the waist to prevent her from moving, but before she could protest, the other snatched his shirt from the ground and draped it over her shoulders.

"Thanks," she mumbled, touched by this gesture of concern for her well being far more than she had been by his botched rescue. Oh, she was still furious with him for betting that he could beat his brother into her pants, but she was very, very tired, and for a shirtless demon lord, he was very, very comfortable…

"Kagome…" Inuyasha growled, and Sesshomaru turned his head to watch a dirty hanyou climb out of a deep hole; the mole-tunnel-ridden ground had collapsed when the magic of the necklace had pulled him down.

"Quiet, hanyou. She's asleep," he hissed as he carefully raised her sliced palm to his nose and gave it a good sniff. It really did need a good cleaning to avoid infection. He gave it an experimental lick, grimacing at the dirt that collected on his tongue, and then rolled the flavor of her essence over his tongue. Not half bad. He could get used to it.

Inuyasha scowled disbelievingly at the blue silk-covered form lying on his brother's chest, a messy tangle of black hair tumbling over flawless, white demon-skin. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Still lying supine and jostling the woman on his chest as little as possible, Sesshomaru fished a stone from the forest floor with his free hand and lobbed it at his idiot brother, pegging him between the eyes. "I said quiet!" he hissed as Inuyasha smacked a hand over his bruised forehead and bared his teeth in a silent snarl.

Closing his eyes, Sesshomaru dismissed him. He was busy doing protective mate things; things that even a degenerate half-breed like Inuyasha should recognize. He'd never done them before, obviously, but he found that he quite liked them. Her body was cool where the breeze caressed her skin and slick with sweat where they touched, and her quiet breathing was a mesmerizing rhythm that coaxed his body to ebb and flow along with hers. To his consternation, he was getting sleepy, and he yawned widely a moment after that realization, as if in proof.

"No fucking way," Inuyasha grumbled, but softly this time. "Don't we have rodents to fillet?"

Yes, he supposed they did, but it was difficult to find the initiative to move with a mostly naked, soon-to-be mate sleeping on his chest. And why was it _his_ obligation to dispatch them? Isn't that what delegation to one's inferiors was for? They weren't even worth his time. He had accomplished the most important part of the mission, namely rescuing Kagome, and now he had better things to do. Through an enormous, fanged yawn, Sesshomaru suggested, "Why don't you go fall on them?"

"Bastard. Fuck if I'm gonna leave you alone with her." Under his breath, Inuyasha muttered several other epithets, which were punctuated by hollow _thunks_ of small stones hitting bamboo trunks. Sesshomaru's eyes had slid shut, and his mind was melding with the whisper of her breath and the rustle of the wind through slender leaves before the hanyou spoke intelligibly again. And typically, it was of no importance. "Where the fuck is Shippo, anyway?"

* * *

From his perch at the top of a tree, Shippo watched Inuyasha's red back disappear into the sea of green that was the bamboo forest's canopy, his hollering shaking the leaves. They must have caught up with their prey. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep up; they simply moved too quickly. Sighing, he gazed out across the endless, undulating, verdant waves…

Ah, but it wasn't quite endless! He narrowed his eyes, shading them with a hand cocked at his forehead, and leapt from treetop to treetop toward what appeared to be a thin, straight break in the trees.

It was a gravel road. Cutting through the trees, it stretched back to a small highway that they had passed and forward deeper into the forest. Glancing behind him to where he had last seen the dog demons, Shippo dropped from the trees onto the side of the road, just behind the first line of trunks. Kagome would be fine with those two charging to her rescue. Not that he truly believed that she needed rescuing; he hated the thought of her injured or scared, but Kagome could handle just about anything. If these youkai hadn't brought this situation down on their own heads, then he might have felt pity for them. With the dog demons hot on their trail and Kagome at the head of the chase, there wouldn't be anything left to pity. He would be of more use scouting out what could possibly be the bad guys' camp.

On silent feet, he darted through the trees that grew alongside the road, a reddish blur barely visible behind the screen of long, green trunks. It was only a matter of minutes before he caught a whiff of diesel fuel and the rumbling purr of a generator. Knowing that he was close, he took his fox form. It was larger than that of an average fox, and his coat shone a brilliant, burnished copper, but he had nothing close to the stature of a taiyoukai. He didn't mind; he had never wanted the power and glory associated with those mighty beings. In his experience, the Cardinal Lords didn't have it all that great, anyway. Boring meetings, constant squabbling, and sycophants underfoot: they could keep it.

Crouched with his belly to the ground and his bushy tail held low and still, he crept forward until he could see a fleet of white vans. They were parked haphazardly around a compound of traditional houses. One had the back doors thrown open and a small pile of gray dust in front of the bumper.

Yes, Kagome had been there.

The scent of drying, human blood reached his nostrils and he sneezed. Whining quietly with worry, he crawled toward the van, his ears twitching to catch the sound of other youkai. The place stank so strongly of rodent and snake that he couldn't tell whether there were youkai still here, or if they had all giving chase in the forest.

"What's taking them so long?" A sibilant, female voice issued from one of the houses, and Shippo's ears perked forward as he froze in place. "How hard is it to catch one human girl?" Another voice, this time male, answered her, but Shippo couldn't discern the words. The female spoke again. "I don't care what she did to Shoko! She's human! Weak!" More mumbling from the male, but it sounded upset. The female didn't seem to be making any friends. "Go be useful, will you? Find out what's keeping them."

Shippo heard the slide of a wooden door against its frame, then another slide and a slam as it was closed. Darting from behind this van to crouch behind the next, he was able to catch sight of a partially transformed rat demon as it lumbered down the steps of the house. For a moment, Shippo considered letting the rat enter the forest and meet the fate that awaited him with poison claws and acid whip, but his better nature persevered.

Transforming back to human form, he snatched a smooth, round stone from the gravel drive. He cupped it in his hands and blew on it, releasing it as it grew in size and translucence. Slowly, gracefully, it bounced silently after the rat until it resembled a giant bubble. On its final bounce, the rat realized that he was being tailed and looked behind him. Whatever he had expected to find, an enormous bubble wasn't it, for he stood stock-still and stared, his beady, black eyes wide and his whiskers quivering. The bubble enveloped him whole, and it was only then that the rat sprang into action, pawing frantically at the walls of his prison with hands and feet, his mouth moving but making no sound. All that he accomplished was to roll the bubble closer to the forest. Shippo gave him a little wave, then slunk up to the house from which the rat had exited and peered into one of the little windows.

A woman with reptilian, but oddly familiar, features sat at an overly ornate, carved-wood table surrounded by chairs upholstered in pink, rose chintz. Mounted on the walls were portraits of beautiful youkai with outrageously styled hair staring out of the pictures with sultry pouts. Boxes crowded the corners of the room, stacked almost to the ceiling, though the lettering on the labels was too small to read from the window.

Her forked tongue flicking in and out of her mouth, she was examining two plastic, toy rings in white and blue. The rings also struck a chord of familiarity, but he could place neither them, nor her face. She jerked in her seat, a movement that had Shippo diving for the ground just in time, for her head whipped around to face the window.

"Who's there?" she hissed, and Shippo held his breath, hoping that the hammering of his heart didn't give him away. He really hadn't missed all the fighting and bloodshed of the feudal era. He listened to the floorboards creaking under her feet; she was approaching the window. As silently as he could, he pulled a length of ribbon from his pocket (for windy days when his hair blew into his face) and held it to his lips, whispering fox magic into it. When the woman's face loomed over him as she leaned out the window, he whipped the ribbon up and it wound around her neck. In moments, it became a length of thick rope that twisted about her body. Shrieking, she tumbled through the window, struggling against the bonds as her form slimmed and lengthened to that of a great snake with a woman's head. Useless now, the rope slackened and popped back into a small ribbon, which was crushed into the dust by her scaled tail.

The snake-woman reared back, baring her fangs and hissing as Shippo straightened from his crouch and took a fighting stance. He hoped that he still remembered the moves that Inuyasha had taught him all those years ago. Pulling a small knife from his boot, he transfigured it back into the sword that the hanyou had given him when he had come of age. It had amused Inuyasha the first time he had seen the trick, and though he had never said so, Shippo suspected that he likened the disguising of the sword to his Tetsusaiga's battered, rusty camouflage. When the snake-woman lunged, Shippo swung the blade, wincing when he felt it hit its mark by the drag on his shoulder. Hot blood showered him, and she hit the ground with two distinct thumps.

Opening his eyes (he couldn't remember closing them, but there it was), he was surprised to see his opponent lying at his feet, her head severed cleanly from her body. Shippo wanted to go be sick in the bushes, but manfully swallowed down the bile with a grimace, knowing the shit he would have gotten for it later. Not that he wouldn't get shit, anyway – he had a feeling that he had just killed the ringleader of this circus. Inuyasha would be quite put out.

Despite all of the noise that they had just made, no one else appeared. Not even the rat-in-a-bubble rolled by. Sighing in relief, Shippo glanced into the window again, this time looking for a sink and running water where he could wash the blood off his hands and face. He didn't want to upset Kagome when he finally got to see her, and it was upsetting him a little, too. As his eyes wandered the room, the two plastic rings caught his attention, lying on the table where the snake-woman must have dropped them.

'Where have I seen those before?' Shippo wondered as he climbed the steps to the sliding door and opened it, so lost in thought that he didn't notice the bloody smear that he left on thick, white rice paper. Plucking them off the table, Shippo eyed them curiously. The blue one had the kanji for "dog" on the oval disc perched atop the band, but the white one was blank.

"Oh!" he exclaimed in sudden recognition. He had had one of these many years ago, but it had been incinerated during a battle. It had been orange, and Kagome had given it to him not long before she had disappeared. He had been heartbroken when he had realized that it had been destroyed. 'Didn't she have one like this, too?' he thought, examining the blue one. 'I wonder why the snake-woman had them?'

Shrugging, he closed his fingers over them and went in search of a sink. He had gotten them all bloody, too.

* * *

A/N: Thanks to all you have who started this fic with me and are still sticking with it! The end is in sight – probably another two chapters.


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